The Homeland! O the Homeland!

The Homeland! O the Homeland! The land of souls free born!
No gloomy night is known there, but only fadeless morn:
I’m sighing for that country, my heart is aching here;
There is no pain in the Homeland to which I’m drawing near.

My Lord is in the Homeland, with angels bright and fair;
No sinful thing nor evil, can ever enter there;
The music of the ransomed is ringing in my ears,
And when I think of the Homeland, my eyes are wet with tears.

For loved ones in the Homeland are waiting me to come,
Where neither death nor sorrow invades their holy home:
O dear, dear native country! O rest and peace above!
Christ bring us all to the Homeland, of His eternal love.

Author: Hugh R. Haweis

Year: 1855

Also known as "The Homeland! O the Homeland!"; sometimes attributed in hymnals to H. R. Haweis (Hugh Reginald Haweis). A few sources list it as anonymous or traditional, but the majority of hymnological references credit Haweis with writing it in the mid-1850s.