This, Too, Will Pass Away

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When some great sorrow, like a mighty river

Author: Lanta Wilson Smith
Tune: [When some great sorrow, like a mighty river]
Published in 5 hymnals

Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 When some great sorrow, like a mighty river,
Flows thro’ your life with peace-destroying pow’r,
And dearest things are swept from sight forever,
Say to your aching heart each trying hour:
This, too, this, too, will pass away.

Refrain:
Thank God that earthly things are not forever,
Thank God, eternal life is free from care;
That joy and peace, and gladness reigning ever,
And bliss supreme
Shall never, never pass away.

2 When ceaseless toil has hushed your song of gladness,
And you have grown almost too tired to pray,
Let this truth banish from your heart its sadness,
And ease the burdens of each trying day:
This, too, this, too, will pass away. [Refrain]

3 When fortune smiles, and full of mirth and pleasure
The days are flitting by without a care,
Lest you should rest with only earthly treasure,
Let these few words their fullest import bear:
This, too, this, too, will pass away. [Refrain]

4 When earnest labor brings you fame and glory,
And all earth’s noblest ones upon you smile,
Remember that life’s longest, grandest story
Fills but a moment in earth’s little while:
This, too, this, too, will pass away. [Refrain]

Source: The Finest of the Wheat No. 2 #102

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Author: Lanta Wilson Smith

Lanta Wilson Smith was born July 19, 1856 at Castine, Maine, and died October 19, 1939 at Taunton, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of a Methodist minister, William J. Wilson, and his wife Sedelia Follett. Her father belonged to the Maine, and later the East Maine Conferences from 1846 until 1866, when he with his family traveled in a covered wagon to the west, where he served as minister in Nebraska and Dakota. Later he returned to New England and founded out his sixty-four years in the ministry at an appointment in Hingham, Massachusetts. From her early childhood Lanta sang and played the organ in church and Sunday school wherever her father was located. When seventeen she attended Bucksport Seminary, Maine, where she received som… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	When some great sorrow, like a mighty river
Title:	This, Too, Will Pass Away
Author:	Lanta Wilson Smith
Language:	English
Refrain First Line:	Thank God that earthly things are not forever
Publication Date:	1894
Copyright:	Public Domain