How Weak the Thoughts, and Vain

How weak the thoughts, and vain,
Of self-deluding men!

How weak the thoughts, and vain,
Of self-deluding men!
Men who, fixed to earth alone,
Think their houses shall endure,
Fondly call their lands their own,
To their distant heirs secure.

How happy then are we,
Who build, O Lord, on thee?
What can our foundation shock?
Though the shattered earth remove,
Stands our city on a rock,
On the Rock of heavenly love.

A house we call our own
Which cannot be o’erthrown;
In the general ruin sure,
Storms and earthquakes it defies;
Built immovably secure,
Built eternal in the skies.

High on Immanuel’s land
We see the fabric stand:
From a tottering world remove
To our steadfast mansion there;
Our inheritance above
Cannot pass from heir to heir.

Those amaranthine bowers
(Unalienably ours)
Bloom, our infinite reward,
Rise, our permanent abode;
From the founded world prepared;
Purchased by the blood of God.

O might we quickly find
The place for us designed;
See the long-expected day
Of our full redemption here;
Let the shadows flee away,
Let the new-made world appear!

High on thy great white throne,
O King of saints, come down!
In the new Jerusalem
Now triumphantly descend;
Let the final trump proclaim
Joys begun which ne’er shall end!