Paradise

O Paradise, O Paradise,

I long to sin no more,

I long to be as pure on earth

As on thy spotless shore.

O Paradise, O Paradise,

I greatly long to see

The special place my dearest Lord

Is destining for me.

O Paradise, O Paradise,

I feel 'twill not be long;

Patience! I almost think I hear

Faint fragments of thy song:

Where loyal hearts and true

Stand ever in the light, All rapture through and through, In God's most holy sight.

TEACH US TO DIE

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley

W

HERE shall we learn to die?

Go, gaze with steadfast eye
On dark Gethsemane
Or darker Calvary,

Where through each lingering hour
The Lord of grace and power,

Most lowly and most high,

Has taught the Christian how to die.

When in the olive shade

His long last prayer he pray'd,
When on the cross to Heaven
His parting spirit was given,
He show'd that to fulfil
The Father's gracious will,
Not asking how or why,
Alone prepares the soul to die.

No word of anxious strife,

No anxious cry for life;

By scoff and torture torn,

He speaks not scorn for scorn;

Teach Us to Die

Calmly forgiving those

Who deem themselves his foes,

In silent majesty

He points the way at peace to die.

Delighting to the last

In memories of the past;
Glad at the parting meal
In lowly tasks to kneel;
Still yearning to the end
For mother and for friend;

His great humility

Loves in such acts of love to die.

Beyond his depth of woes
A wider thought arose,
Along his path of gloom,
Thoughts for his country's doom;
Athwart all pain and grief,
Thought for the contrite thief:
The far-stretch'd sympathy

Lives on when all beside shall die.

Bereft, but not alone,

The world is still his own;

The realm of deathless truth

Still breathes immortal youth;

Sure, though in shuddering dread,

That all is finished,

With purpose fix'd and high

The friend of all mankind must die.

Oh, by those weary hours

Of slowly-ebbing powers;

By those deep lessons heard

In each expiring word;

By that unfailing love
Lifting the soul above,
When our last end is nigh,

So teach us, Lord, with Thee to die.