O land of rest...

Yesterday I enjoyed worshiping without playing - in other words - I had a vacation Sunday. I have next week off as well and plan to visit another congregation to see how they worship. A week ago (August 8th) I played Joseph Martin's arrangement of Land of Rest for the prelude. This was done with a little humour, pointing to my vacation time with the words:

O land of rest, for thee I sigh! When will the moment come...?

In reality, the words are not talking about vacation at all, but rather about the Christian's responsibility to keep on the heavenly road until we are called home to our reward.

I'm not sure that the words I recall are actually the ones that belong with Martin's arrangement. The tune names are similar but not identical. Martin indicates that the traditional American melody may have come from the UK originally but is known to have been widely used in Appalachia. That tune is called LAND OF REST. He also says that the words commonly used are from the 16th century.

The tune I'm more familiar with is O LAND OF REST and was written by William Miller in the 1800's. The verses have a refrain which are in keeping with the idea of continuing to work for the Kingdom:

We'll work 'til Jesus comes,
We'll work 'til Jesus comes,
We'll work 'til Jesus comes,
And we'll be gathered home.

Words by Elizabeth Mills

Unfortunately, neither of these tunes is in the Cyber Hymnal.