Beyond the smiling and the weeping. H. Bonar. [Heaven anticipated.] Published in his Hymns of Faith and Hope, 1st series 1857, in 6 stanzas of 8 lines, the last three lines being a refrain. In Great Britain it is found in one or two collections only, but in America its use is somewhat extensive, but usually with abbreviations and the change in the refrain of "Sweet hope!" to "Sweet home!” This last change has destroyed the loving tenderness of the refrain, and could never have been made by a poet. The refrain reads in the original:
If Love, rest, and home!
Sweet hope!
Lord, tarry not, but come."
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Horatius Bonar was born at Edinburgh, in 1808. His education was obtained at the High School, and the University of his native city. He was ordained to the ministry, in 1837, and since then has been pastor at Kelso. In 1843, he joined the Free Church of Scotland. His reputation as a religious writer was first gained on the publication of the "Kelso Tracts," of which he was the author. He has also written many other prose works, some of which have had a very large circulation. Nor is he less favorably known as a religious poet and hymn-writer. The three series of "Hymns of Faith and Hope," have passed through several editions.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872… Go to person page >
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