A Prospect Of Heaven

( Originally Published 1868 )

ISAAC WATTS, D. D.

THERE is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign ;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.

There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flow'rs ;
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
This heavenly land from ours.

Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dressed in living green ;
So to the Jews old Caanan stood,
While Jordan rolled between.

But timorous mortals start and shrink
To cross this narrow sea ;
And linger, shivering on the brink,
And fear to launch away.

Oh could we make our doubts remove—
Those gloomy doubts that rise—
And see the Caanan that we love
With unbeclouded eyes ;