Poems, Sacred and Moral/Life

by Thomas Gisborne

For works with similar titles, see Life.

LIFE.

 

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A Soldier's course from battles won
To new-commencing strife;
A Pilgrim's restless as the sun:
Behold the Christian's life!

Prepared the trumpet's call to greet,
Soldier of Jesus! stand.
Pilgrim of Christ! with ready feet
Await thy Lord's command.

The hosts of Satan pant for spoil:
How can thy warfare close?
Lonely thou tread'st a foreign soil:
How canst thou hope repose?

Seek, Soldier, Pilgrim, seek thine home,
Reveal'd in sacred lore;
The land whence Pilgrims never roam,
Where Soldiers war no more:

Where Grief shall never wound, nor Death,
Beneath the Saviour's reign:
Nor Sin with pestilential breath
His holy realm profane:

The land where, Suns and Moons unknown,
And Night's alternate sway,
Jehovah's ever-burning throne
Upholds unbroken day:

The land, for Heaven its bliss unseen
Bids earthly types suggest;
Where healing leaves and fadeless green
Fruit-laden groves invest:

Where Founts of Life their treasures yield
In streams that never cease;
Where everlasting mountains shield
Vales of eternal peace:

Where they who meet shall never part;
Where Grace atchieves its plan:
And God, uniting every heart,
Dwells face to face with man.