Music & HymnsLoved One, Farewell

"God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Revelation 7:17

Courtesy of Desert Foothills United Methodist Church

Words: Mary Bridges Canedy Slade, in Good News, or Songs and Tunes for Sunday Schools, Christian Associations, and Special Meetings, edited by Rigdon McCoy McIntosh (Boston, Massachusetts: Oliver Ditson & Company, 1876).

Music: Asa Brooks Everett (1828-1875)

The following accompanied this song when it was published:

IN MEMORIAM-TUESDAY MORNING, NOV. 23, 1875
This is one of several beautiful "songs without words" that my true and well tried friend, Dr. A. Brooks Everett, contributed for these pages only a short time before his death; and to me, it was as sweet as anything Schumann ever wrote. The words are Mrs. Slade's, and I thank her for them. The dedication is mine.
R. M. McIntosh

Birds are rejoicing,
O'er hill and dell;
Hushed is thy voicing,
Sweeter that fell.
Friend of our happy days,
Brother of prayer and praise,
Thine own sweet music says,
Loved one, farewell!

Thou hast ascended,
Where angels dwell;
Where, earth songs ended,
Heav'n's anthems swell.
Safe, all the saints among,
Blest with the praising throng,
Singing the new made songs,
Loved one, farewell!

Salvation's story
Then thou wilt tell;
Triumphs of glory,
Thy voice shall swell.
Rest thou, oh, friend so dear,
Thy precious Savior near,
Where God shall wipe each tear,
Loved one, farewell!

Safe from thee turning,
Grief's tones will knell;
Hard, hard the learning,
God doeth well!
Till, be it soon or late,
Up, at the pearly gate,
We meet, oh watch and wait,
Loved one, farewell!

Hymns supplied through the gracious generosity of the Cyber Hymnal Website