CHRISTIAN LIFE >> HOPE & COMFORT
SDAH 472
O sweet, celestial music,
Heard from a land afar-
The song of Heav’n and Homeland,
Thro’ doors God leaves ajar!
Get the hymn sheet in other keys here
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: A Song of Heaven and Homeland
In 1901, hymn composer Ira D. Sankey received a letter from Eben Rexford, a writer and gardening editor, offering 20 new hymns in exchange for hymnbooks for a struggling church. Among them was “A Song of Heaven and Homeland,” which Sankey set to music and considered one of his finest works. Though not widely included in hymnals, it gained popularity in the 1940s and ’50s through broadcasts of the Voice of Prophecy, sung by Del Delker, the King’s Heralds, and The Hymnsingers. Echoing Revelation 14:3, it paints a longing picture of the eternal home where God’s people will sing before His throne—a song of faith that points hearts toward the glory and rest of heaven.
📖 Reference: Feel free to share but please cite hymnsforworship.org when reproducing.
Introductions for Sabbath School Song Service (based on specific lesson quarterlies):
Ira D. Sankey (1840-1908; see SDAH 208) tells this story in his book, My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns: “In the year 1901 Mr. Eben Rexford [1848-1916; see SDAH 366], editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal landscape and gardening department, wrote me, asking a donation of 50 copies of Gospel Hymns for a poor church, saying he would give me 20 new hymns in exchange. I sent the books and received the hymns, among which I found ‘A Song of Heaven and Homeland,’ which I soon set to music, and which I consider to be one of my best compositions.” Rexford also wrote SDAH 366, “O Where Are the Reapers?”
This haunting gospel song has made its way into very few hymnbooks, but became a favorite in the 1940s. George W. Greer’s arrangement, sung in the early 1950s by his Pacific Union College a cappella choir on the Voice of Prophecy radiobroadcast, was so o appealing that soon other choirs were singing it all over the country. It was published in the Voice of Prophecy Song Book, 1953, and was sung by Del Delker, contralto soloist, the King’s Heralds, and The Hymnsingers on the radio program.
In his book, Sacred Songs and Solos, published by Marshall, Morgan & Scott, London, Sankey printed this line from Revelation 14:3 at the head of the song: “And they sung as it were a new song before the throne.”
📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.
Text
1
Sometimes I hear strange music,
Like none e’er heard before,
Come floating softly earthward
As thro’ heav’n’s open door:
It seems like angel voices,
In strains of and love,
That swell the mighty chorus
Around the throne above.
Refrain
O sweet, celestial music,
Heard from a land afar-
The song of Heav’n and Homeland,
Thro’ doors God leaves ajar!
2
Now soft, and low, and restful,
It floods my soul with peace,
As if God’s benediction
Bade all earth’s troubles cease.
Then grander than the voices,
Of wind, and wave, and sea-
It fills the dome of heaven
With glorious harmony.
3
This music haunts me ever,
Like something heard in dreams-
It seems to catch the cadence
Of heav’nly winds and streams,
My heart is filled with rapture,
To think, some day to come,
I’ll sing it with the angels-
The song of heav’n and home.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(c) Isa 35:10
Author
E.E. Rexford (1848-1916)
Metrical Number
7.6.7.6.D.Ref.
Composer
Ira D. Sankey (1840-1908)
Theme
HOPE AND COMFORT
