Via Bethlehem we journey

Via Bethlehem we journey

We whose hearts on God are set;

Babelike souls of Jesus learning

While our cheeks with tears are wet;

For the manger and the stable

Are not pleasant to our eyes

But our feet must follow Jesus

If our hands would grasp the prize.

Via Nazareth! the pathway

Narrows still as on we go

Years of toil none understanding

Yet God teaches us to know

That the servant is not greater

Than the Lord

who through long years

Hid Himself from this world’s glory

Follow Him! Count not the tears.

Via Galilee

we see Him!

Stones are hurled

and curses hissed

By the men who gather round Him

Has He not the pathway missed?

No! unharmed the Savior passes

And this rough bit of the way

We must travel

since like Jesus

Nothing can our purpose stay.

Via too

the awful anguish

Of the hours beneath the trees

Where the hosts of Satan linger

Awful hours of anguish these!

Yet we fail not

for God’s angels

Minister to us

and say

“Look

beloved

at the glory

Conflict is but for a day!”

Then the Cross! for via Calvary

Every royal soul must go;

Here we draw the veil

for Jesus

Only can the pathway show;

“If we suffer with Him

” listen

Just a little

little while

And the memory will have faded

In the glory of His smile!

Then the grave

with dear ones weeping

Knowing that all life has fled;

(Fellow-pilgrims

art thou numbered

With the men the world calls dead?)

Thence we rise

and live with Jesus

Throned above the world’s mad strife

Gladly forfeiting forever

All that worldlings count as life.

On we press! and yonder gleaming

Nearing every day

we see

The great walls of that fair city

God has built for such as we;

And we catch the tender music

Of the choirs that sing of One

Who once died to have us with Him

In His kingdom

on the throne.

Just a few more miles

beloved!

And our feet shall ache no more;

No more sin

and no more sorrow

Hush thee

Jesus went before;

And I hear Him sweetly whispering

“Faint not

fear not

still press on

For it may be ere tomorrow

The long journey will be done.”