Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings, thy better portion trace;
Rise from transitory things, towards heaven, thy destined place:
Sun and moon and stars decay, time shall soon this earth remove;
Rise, my soul, and haste away to seats prepared above.
Rivers to the ocean run, nor stay in all their course;
Fire ascending seeks the sun; both speed them to their source:
So my soul, derived from God, longs to view His glorious face,
Forward tends to His abode, to rest in His embrace.
Cease, ye pilgrims, cease to mourn, press onward to the prize;
Soon thy Savior will return, to take thee to the skies:
There is everlasting peace, rest, enduring rest, in heaven;
There will sorrow ever cease, and crowns of joy be given.
About the writer: Robert Seagrave was an English clergyman who was born in 1693 and graduated from Cambridge in 1718. He defended the Calvinistic Methodists and wrote and published pamphlets and sermons designed to reform the clergy and Church of England. While preaching at Lorimer’s Hall, London, he published a hymn book for the use of his congregation: Hymns for Christian Worship, 1742. To this book, he contributed 50 original hymns. The year of his death is not known.
Key Verse: There are many rooms in my Father’s home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. –John 14:2