EARLY ADVENT
SDAH 445
I’m but a stranger here,
Heav’n is my home;
Earth is a desert drear,
Heav’n is my home.
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For Worship Leaders
Make each hymn more meaningful with these helpful tools: Short, ready-to-use hymn introductions for church bulletins, multiple ways to introduce a hymn based on your worship theme and in-depth history and insights to enrich your song service.
Hymn Spotlight: I’m But a Stranger Here
Written in 1835 during a time of illness, Thomas Rawson Taylor’s hymn reflects a deep awareness of life’s brevity—“Short is my pilgrimage… I soon shall rest.” Taylor, the son of a Congregational minister, trained for the ministry but was often hindered by ill health, passing away at only 27. The tune, OAK, was composed in 1854 by Lowell Mason, its simplicity matching the hymn’s tender expression of longing for the heavenly home. For believers, it is a reminder that our true citizenship is in heaven, and that life’s trials are but steps on the journey toward eternity with Christ.
📖 Reference: Feel free to share but please cite hymnsforworship.org when reproducing.
Introductions for Sabbath School Song Service (based on specific lesson quarterlies):
These words were written in 1835 by Thomas Rawson Taylor during an illness that brought him to a premature death at the age of 27 years and 10 months. He seemed to have a premonition of his demise, for three times he makes reference to it in the words: “Short is my pilgrimage”; “Time’s.. blast soon will be overpast”; and “I soon shall rest.” There is one other stanza.
Taylor was born at Ossett, near Leeds, in Yorkshire, England, on May 9, 1807, the son of a Congregational minister. He left school at 15 and worked in an office, first for a merchant, and then for a printer. However, at 18 years of age he went to Airedale Independent College to train for the Congregational ministry. On completion of his course he was appointed to a church in Sheffield in July 1830, but ill health overtook him after six months, and he was transferred to the college as tutor of classics. However, ill health continued to weaken him until death came at Bradford on March 7, 1835.
The tune OAK was composed especially for these words in 1854 by Lowell Mason (1792-1872).
📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.
Text
1
I’m but a stranger here,
Heav’n is my home;
Earth is a desert drear,
Heav’n is my home.
Danger and sorrow stand
Round me on every hand;
Heav’n is my fatherland,
Heav’n is my home.
2
What though the tempest rage,
Heav’n is my home;
Short is my pilgrimage,
Heav’n is my home;
And time’s wild wintry blast
Soon shall be over past;
I shall reach home at last,
Heav’n is my home.
3
There at my Savior’s side
Heav’n is my home;
I shall be glorified,
Heav’n is my home;
There are the good and blest,
Those I love most and best;
And there I, too, shall rest,
Heav’n is my home.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(a) Heb 11:10
Author
Thomas R. Taylor (1807-1835)
Year Published
1835
Hymn Tune
OAK
Metrical Number
6.4.6.4.6.6.6.4.
Composer
Lowell Mason (1792-1872)
Year Composed
1854
Recommended Reading
Miller gained a huge following which came to be called, the ‘Millerites.’ Great Tent meetings were set up, and the progressing movement saw the need to provide new hymns. Sure, they had songs that they were singing from the churches they belonged to, but none that supported the distinct messages that was being preached such as the judgment, second advent, reward of the saints and the midnight cry. As a result, hymns were compiled and the first Millerite hymnal was born.
