For ever with the Lord

For ever with the Lord. James Montgomery* (1771-1854). First published in The Amethyst: or Christian’s Annual for 1834, in which there were twenty-two 4-line stanzas, in three parts: 4 stanzas; 9 stanzas; and 9 stanzas. It was published again in Montgomery’s Poet’s Portfolio (1835), in two parts of (1) 9 stanzas and (2) 13 stanzas. It was entitled ‘At Home in Heaven. 1 Thess. 4: 17’. In the edition of Montgomery’s Poetical Works of 1873, it was titled ‘Anticipations of Heaven’. It contained a stanza not normally published in hymnbooks, following the one beginning ‘My thirsty spirit faints’: I hear at morn and even,   At noon and midnight hour, The choral harmonies of heaven,   Earth’s...