Oh, that I could forever dwell
Delighted at the Savior's feet,
Behold the form I love so well,
And all his tender words repeat.

2 The world shut out from all my soul,
And heaven brought in with all its bliss,
Oh! is there aught, from pole to pole,
One moment to compare with this?

3 This is the hidden life I prize,
A life of penitential love,
When most my follies I despise,
And raise my highest thoughts above.

4 When all I am I clearly see,
And freely own with deepest shame;
When the Redeemer's love to me
Kindles within a deathless flame.

5 Thus would I live till nature fail
And all my former sins forsake;
Then rise to God within the veil,
And of eternal joys partake.

Andrew Reed, 1841.