1 I dreamed that I stood at the portal of heav’n,
With saints of the ages whom Christ had forgiv’n;
But I was alone in the mist of the throng,
And something I missed from the heavenly song.
Alone! Alone!
Alone at the Beautiful Gate!
Alone! Alone!
Alone at the Beautiful Gate!
O pity of pities, O sorrowful fate,
To journey alone, alone to the Beautiful Gate!
2 “Why came I alone?” to an angel I said;
“All others have dear ones whom here they have led;
Have I none who love me, who watch and who wait
To enter with me thro’ the Beautiful Gate?”
Alone! Alone!
Alone at the Beautiful Gate!
Alone! Alone!
Alone at the Beautiful Gate!
O pity of pities, O sorrowful fate,
To journey alone, alone to the Beautiful Gate!
3 “Alas!” said the angel, “none saw in thy face
The smile of the Master, the heavenly grace;
He asked for thyself, but the price was too great,
And so thou art lonely at Heaven’s own Gate.”
I woke from my dream with a cry in my soul;
“O Lord, take my life,—not a part, but the whole;
No toil is a burden, no price is too great
For one who has dreamed of the Beautiful Gate!
Source: Assembly Songs: for use in evangelistic services, Sabbath schools, young peoples societies, devotional meetings, and the home #169
Jessie Brown Pounds was born in Hiram, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland on 31 August 1861. She was not in good health when she was a child so she was taught at home. She began to write verses for the Cleveland newspapers and religious weeklies when she was fifteen. After an editor of a collection of her verses noted that some of them would be well suited for church or Sunday School hymns, J. H. Fillmore wrote to her asking her to write some hymns for a book he was publishing. She then regularly wrote hymns for Fillmore Brothers. She worked as an editor with Standard Publishing Company in Cincinnati from 1885 to 1896, when she married Rev. John E. Pounds, who at that time was a pastor of the Central Christian Church in Indianapolis.
A memorab… Go to person page >
My Starred Hymns
My FlexScores
My Hymnals
My Purchased Files