How happy are the favored few

1 How happy are the favour'd few,
Who live below, as angels do
In blissful bowers above;
Serenely calm, with sweet contend,
Their days, like days in heaven, are spent
In holiness and love,
In holiness and love.
Their days, like days in heaven, are spent
In holiness and love.

2 Say, what to them is Pleasure's voice?
Or Glory's flame? or Wealth's gay toys?
Or all earth boasts besides?
This world is but their pilgrim rest;
And onward to their home they haste,
Where Christ their Lord abides.

3 The ills that o'er their pathway cross,
Disease, and poverty, and loss,
Are servants in disguise;
Who aid them in the holy strife,
To seize the crown of endless life:--
Bright heaven's enduring prize.

4 How peaceful their communings are,
Who thus, with Christ, their Saviour, share
The Father's boundless grace:
Assured of his unfailing love,
Their hopes, their joys are all above:--
In heaven their native place.

5 Let storm on storm in angry mood,
And earthquake dire, and flame and flood,
In all their fury rise:
Their steady hearts shall know no fear,
For lo! their Father, God, is near,
Who rules both earth and skies.

6 Oh! let me with that radiant band
Unite my trembling heart and hand;
Nor thence again be riven:
In life, in death, oh! let me be
One of that goodly company,
And shine with them in heaven.

Source: The Minstrel of Zion: a book of religious songs, accompanied with appropriate music, chiefly original #146