The Cyber Hymnal ‎#13986

13986. There Was An Eden Once On Earth

1 There was an Eden once on earth
Beyond conception fair—
Where mortal beauty had her birth
Ere sin had entered there.

2 What flow’rs perfumed the balmy gale
All bursting into bloom:
What fruits enriched the happy vale
Of cool, but grateful gloom!

3 There our first parents, clothed in grace,
The velvet verdure trod,
And loved in all they saw, to trace
The vestiges of God!

4 Oh! life divine—when day retired
And closed her golden eye—
And genial evening gently fired
The curtains of the sky:

Then would the Voice, that made them all,
Flow downward from His throne—
And sweetly on His creatures call,
To walk with Him alone!

Holy communion! Matchless joy!
How freely it was giv’n;
That bath of bliss, without alloy,
An antepast of Heav’n!

5 Woe to the hour, that shed its shade
O’er such a glorious scene—
And soon, too soon, in ruins laid
That which had perfect been!

6 From Eden to Gethsemane—
With tender tears we turn:
Our dear Redeemer there to see,
And there rejoice and mourn!

Text Information

• First Line: There was an Eden once on earth
• Title: There Was An Eden Once On Earth
• Author: Matthew Bridges
• Meter: CM
• Language: English
• Source: The Passion of Jesus (London: Richardson & Son, 1852)
• Copyright: Public Domain

Tune Information

• Name: LAFAYETTE
• Composer: John Bunyan Herbert (1890)
• Meter: CM
• Key: F Major or modal
• Copyright: Public Domain