Citizens of Heaven

1 Corinthians 15:47-48

Who are these whose faces are irradiate
With eternal joy?
With a calm the tempest may not trouble
Nor the grave destroy?

Glad as those who hear a glorious singing
From the golden street,
Moving to the measure of the music
That is passing sweet.

They have been within the inner chamber
None can tread beside,
Where the Bridegroom, radiant in His glory,
Waiteth for the Bride.

He has shown them in those many mansions
How to Him is given
That high palace of surpassing beauty,
Holiest in heaven.

Therefore tread they in earth’s darkest places,
Through all grief and sin,
For they know the Home that waits the weary,
Know the love within.

Therefore sad and strange to them the splendors
Of the world must be,
“O forgotten and rejected Jesus,
We have looked on Thee!”

We have seen Thee in the Father’s glory,
Shared the Father’s kiss;
Strange henceforward to the world our sadness,
Stranger yet our bliss.

Is it strange that from the golden chamber,
From the secret place,
Come they forth with everlasting radiance
Of His glorious Face?

Telling mysteries that to babes are simple,
Hidden from the wise,
Fragrant with the odors of the lilies
Of God’s Paradise?

Changed—transformed; for ever and for ever;
Thine alone to be;
Knowing none on earth, O Lord, beside Thee,
None in heaven but Thee. —C. P. C.