628--Via Bethlehem we journey,

Via Bethlehem we journey,

628

	1.	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.
	2.	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.
	3.	Via Galilee, we see Him!
		Stones are hurled, and cursed hissed
		By the men who gather round Him,
		Has He not the pathway missed?
		No! unharmed the Saviour passes,
		And this rough bit of the way
		We must travel, since like Jesus,
		Nothing can our purpose stay.
	4.	Via too, the awful anguish
		Of the hours beneath the trees,
		Where the host 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!"
	5.	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!
	6.	Then the grave, with dear ones weeping,
		Knowing that all life had 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,
		Glady forfeiting forever,
		All that worldlings count as life.
	7.	On we press! and yonder gleaming,
		Nearer every day, we see
		The great walls of that fair city,
		God had 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.
	8.	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."