"While He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into Heaven." -- Luke xxiv.51.

G. Ter Steegen.

tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899

All hail! O glorious Son of God,

In triumph risen again --

All heaven resounds with joyful laud

The songs of ransomed men;

The mighty chains of death are riven,

The Risen Christ is throned in Heaven.

Before thee all the shining hosts

The mighty Angels bend;

Thy saved ones from a thousand coasts

Their psalms of victory blend --

I join that song so passing sweet,

I cast my crown before Thy Feet.

O joy! the second Adam stands

Within God's Paradise --

No longer barred by flaming brands

The shining pathway lies --

Within, the glorious Head has passed;

Each member must be there at last.

Behind us lie the cross and grave,

Before, eternal bliss;

There blossoms from the garden cave

The Tree of Righteousness,

The Face that shame and spitting bore

Is crowned with radiance evermore.

With Mary, O my Lord, I bow

In rapture at Thy Feet;

In spirit humbly kiss them now

And soon in presence sweet;

My name upon Thy lips divine

The lips that tell me "Thou art mine."

Thou livest far from earthly strife

In God's eternal peace --

And there with Thee is hid my life,

And there my wanderings cease;

The secret place where still and blest

I rest in Thine eternal rest.