WE'RE A PILGRIM BAND IN A STRANGER LAND

We're a pilgrim band in a stranger land
Who are marching from Calvary,
Where the wondrous Cross, with its gain and loss,
Is the sum of our history:
There we lost our stand in a death-doomed land,
As children of wrath by the fall;
There we gained a place as heirs of grace
At the feast in the heavenly hall.

We read our guilt in the blood that was spilt,
And we weep o'er the crimson flow;
But we joy in the grace of the unveiled face
Of a Father here below:
And as sons of God, redeemed by blood,
We hasten from Egypt away;
We cross the sand to the pleasant land
And the joys of an endless day.

We were children of night, kept far from the light,
Enslaved by a cruel foe;
But Jesus' pains broke the iron chains,
And redeemed our souls from woe:
Now as children of light we walk and we fight
In a path of triumphant joy;
For our strength is the Lord, whose Word is our sword,
While faith is the shield we employ.

Our home is with God, and our path has been trod
By the faithful of ages all,
And us He will bring, as on eagles' wing,
To our place in the marriage hall:
Then, then shall we sing, as the Bride of the King,
Of the blood that has brought us so nigh,
To bask in the blaze of the Ancient of Days,
Enthroned above the sky.