Verse 1
Soldier of Christ, adieu!
Thy conflicts here are past,
Thy Lord hath brought thee thro’,
And giv’n the crown at last:
Rejoice to wear the glorious prize,
Rejoice with God in paradise.
Verse 2
There all thy sufferings cease,
There all thy griefs are o’er,
The pris’ner is at peace,
The mourner weeps no more;
From man’s oppressive tyranny
Thou liv’st, thou liv’st forever free.
Verse 3
Torn from thy friends below
In banishment severe,
A man of strife, and woe,
No more thou wandrest here,
Join’d to thy better friends above,
At rest in thy Redeemer’s love.
Verse 4
No longer now constrain’d
With human fiends to dwell,
To see their evil pain’d,
Their blasphemies to feel:
Angels and saints thy comrades are,
And all adore the Saviour there.
Verse 5
Thou canst not there bemoan
Thy friends or country’s loss,
Thro’ sore oppression groan,
Or faint beneath the cross,
The joy hath swallow’d up the pain,
And death is thy eternal gain.
Verse 6
What hath their malice done
Who hurried hence thy soul?
When half thy race was run,
They push’d thee to the goal,
Sent to the souls supremely blest,
And drove thee to thy earlier rest!
Verse 7
Thou out of great distress
To thy reward art past,
Triumphant happiness,
And joys that always last:
Thanks be to God, who set thee free,
And gave the final victory.
Verse 8
Thy victory we share,
Thy glorious joy we feel,
Parted in flesh we are,
But join’d in spirit still:
And still we on our brethren call
To praise the common Lord of all.
Verse 9
Not for your needless aid,
Not for your useless prayers,
(Jesus for us hath pray’d,
And all our burthens bears)
Yet still on you we call, and cry
Extol the Lord of earth and sky.
Verse 10
Thus let us still maintain
Our fellowship divine,
And ’till we meet again
In Jesus’ praises join,
Thus, ’till we all your raptures know,
Sing you above, and we below!