The New English Hymnal ‎#460

460. There is a land of pure delight

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

2 There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flowers;
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
That heavenly land from ours.

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

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

5 O could we make our doubts remove,
Those gloomy doubts that rise,
And see the Canaan that we love
With unbeclouded eyes!

6 Could we but climb where Moses stood,
And view the landscape o'er,
Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood,
Should fright us from the shore!

Text Information

• First Line: There is a land of pure delight
• Author: Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
• Meter: CM
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1986
• Topic: Funerals and The Departed
• Notes: Alternative tune MENDIP 442

Tune Information

• Name: BEULAH
• Composer: G. M. Garrett, 1834-97
• Meter: CM
• Key: E♭ Major