Ambassadors for Christ

“Who are these who come amongst us,

Strangers to our speech and ways?

Passing by our joys and treasures,

Singing in the darkest days?

Are they pilgrims journeying on

From a land we have not known?”

We are come from a far country,

From a land beyond the sun;

We are come from that geat glory

Round our God's eternal throne:

Thence we come, and thither go;

Here no resting-place we know.

Far within the depth of glory,

In the Father's house above,

We have learnt His wondrous secret,

We have learnt His heart of love:

We have seen and we have shared

That bright joy He hath prepared.

We have seen the golden city

Shining as the jasper stone;

Heard the song that fills the heavens

Of the Man upon the throne;

Well that glorious One we know—

He hath sent us here below.

We have drunk the living waters,

On the Tree of Life have fed;

Therefore deathless do we journey

'Midst the dying and the dead;

And unthirsting do we stand

Here amidst the barren sand.

Round us, as a cloud of glory

Lighting up the midnight road,

Falls the light from that bright city,

Showing us where He has trod;

All that here might please the sight

Lost in that eternal light.

“Wherefore are ye come amongst us

From the glory to the gloom?”

Christ in glory breathed within us

Life, His life, and bid us come.

Here as living springs to be—

Fountains of that life are we.

Fountains of the life that floweth

Ever downwards from the throne,

Witnesses of that bright glory

Where, rejected, He is gone,

Sent to give the blind their sight,

Turn the darkness into light.

There, amidst the joy eternal,

Is the Man who went above,

Bearing marks of all the hatred

Of the world He sought in love.

He has sent us here to tell

Of His love unchangeable.

He hath sent us, that in sorrow,

In rejection, toil, and loss,

We may learn the wondrous sweetness,

Learn the mystery of His cross—

Learn the depth of love that traced

That blest path across the waste.

He hath sent us highest honours

Of His cross and shame to win,

Bear His light through deepest darkness,

Walk in white ‘midst foulest sin;

Sing amidst the wintry gloom,

Sing the blessed songs of home.

From the dark and troubled waters

Many a pearl to Him we bear;

Golden sheaves we bring with singing,

Fulness of His joy we share;

And our pilgrim journey o'er,

Praise with Him for evermore.