I'm But a Stranger Here

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I'm but a stranger here

Author: Thomas Rawson Taylor
Published in 630 hymnals

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Representative Text

1 I'm but a stranger here,
Heaven is my home;
Earth is a desert drear;
Heaven is my home:
Danger and sorrow stand
Round me on every hand;
Heaven is my fatherland,
Heaven is my home.

2 What though the tempest rage,
Heaven is my home;
Short is my pilgrimage,
Heaven is my home:
And time's wild wintry blast
Soon shall be overpast;
I shall reach home at last,
Heaven is my home.

3 There at my Saviour's side,
Heaven is my home;
I shall be glorified,
Heaven is my home.
There are the good and blest,
Those I love most and best;
And there I too shall rest,
Heaven is my home.

4 Therefore I murmur not,
Heaven is my home;
Whate'er my earthly lot,
Heaven is my home:
And I shall surely stand
There at my Lord's right hand:
Heaven is my fatherland,
Heaven is my home.

Amen.

The Hymnal: Published by the authority of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1895

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Author: Thomas Rawson Taylor

Taylor, Thomas Rawson, son of the Rev. Thomas Taylor, some time Congregational Minister at Bradford, Yorkshire, was born at Ossett, near Wakefield, May 9, 1807, and educated at the Free School, Bradford, and the Leaf Square Academy, Manchester. From the age of 15 to 18 he was engaged, first in a merchant's, and then in a printer's office. Influenced by strong religious desires, he entered the Airedale Independent College at 18, to prepare for the Congregational ministry. His first and only charge was Howard Street Chapel, Sheffield. This he retained about six months, entering upon the charge in July 1830, and leaving it in the January following. For a short time he acted as classical tutor at Airedale College, but the failure of health whi… Go to person page >

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First Line:	I'm but a stranger here
Title:	I'm But a Stranger Here
Author:	Thomas Rawson Taylor
Meter:	6.4.6.4.6.6.6.4
Language:	English
Refrain First Line:	Heaven is our home
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

I'm but a stranger here. T. R. Taylor. [Heaven the Home.] This hymn, written apparently during his last illness, was published in his Memoirs and Select Remains, by W. S. Matthews, 1836, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines, and headed "Heaven is my home. Air—4 Robin Adair.'" In 1853 it was included in the Leeds Hymn Book; and later in numerous collections in Great Britain and America, sometimes as "We are but strangers here." Original text in Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858 and 1880, with tempest for "tempests" in stanza ii., line 1.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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