Till det härliga land ovan skyn

1. Till det härliga land ovan skyn
vi i tron skådar upp redan här,
ty ett hem, fast fördolt för vår syn,
har vår Jesus berett åt oss där.
//: Om en kort liten tid
får vi mötas på himmelens strand ://

2. Även vi på den ljuvliga strand
skall få sjunga de saligas sång,
när vi, lösta från jordiska band,
får vår Frälsare skåda en gång.
Om en kort...

3. Hos vår älskade Fader och Gud
vi vårt offer och tack lägger ner
för den kärlek han skänker sin brud
och den nåd som han dagligen ger.
Om en kort...

Text: Sanford Fillmore Bennett 1867 (31 år) "There´s a land that is fairer than day", "In the sweet by-and-by", sv. övers. Erik Nyström 1875 (33 år)
Musik: Joseph Philbrick Webster (=Det är saligt på Jesus få tro)

Sanford Fill­more Ben­nett (1836-1898) berättar:

Mr. Webster, like ma­ny mu­si­cians, was of an ex­ceed­ing­ly ner­vous and sen­si­tive na­ture, and sub­ject to per­i­ods of de­press­ion, in which he looked up­on the dark side of all things in life. I had learned his pe­cul­i­ar­i­ties so well that on meet­ing him I could tell at a glance if he was mel­an­cho­ly, and had found that I could rouse him up by giv­ing him a new song to work on.

He came in­to my place of bus­i­ness [in Elk­horn, Wis­con­sin], walked down to the stove, and turned his back on me without speak­ing. I was at my desk. Turn­ing to him, I said, “Webs­ter, what is the mat­ter now?” “It’s no mat­ter,” he re­plied, “it will be all right by and by.” The idea of the hymn came me like a flash of sun­light, and I re­plied, “The Sweet By and By! Why would not that make a good hymn?” “May­be it would,” he said in­dif­fer­ent­ly. Turn­ing to my desk I penned the words of the hymn as fast as I could write. I hand­ed the words to Web­ster. As he read his eyes kin­dled, and stepp­ing to the desk he be­gan writ­ing the notes. Tak­ing his vi­o­lin, he played the mel­o­dy and then jot­ted down the notes of the cho­rus. It was not over thir­ty min­utes from the time I took my pen to write the words be­fore two friends with Web­ster and myself were sing­ing the hymn.