I’m a Pilgrim

1. I’m a pilgrim, and I’m a stranger;
    I can tarry, I can tarry but a night;
Do not detain me, for I am going
    To where the fountains are ever flowing.

Refrain
I’m a pilgrim, and I’m a stranger;
I can tarry, I can tarry but a night.

2. There the glory is ever shining!
    O my longing heart, my longing heart is there;
Here in this country so dark and dreary,
    I long have wandered forlorn and weary.
Refrain

3. There’s the city to which I journey;
    My Redeemer, my Redeemer is its light!
There is no sorrow, nor any sighing,
    Nor any tears there, or any dying.
Refrain

4. Farewell, neighbors, with tears I’ve warned you,
    I must leave you, I must leave you, and be gone!
With this your portion, your heart’s desire,
    Why will you perish in raging fire?
Refrain

5. Father, mother, and sister, brother!
    If you will not journey with me, I must go!
Now since your vain hopes you will thus cherish,
    Should I, too, linger, and with you perish?
Refrain

6. Farewell drear earth, by sin so blighted,
    In immortal beauty soon you’ll be arrayed;
He who has formed thee will soon restore thee,
    And then the dread curse shall never more be.
Refrain

Playback

Instrumental – Sampled Sounds

Choir (medley) – from Germany

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MP3 – Choir (medley) (from Germany)

The text of this hymm was written by Mary S. B. Dana (1810-1883) in 1841, while she was involved with the Advent revival under the preaching of William Miller.

Her full biography is given in John Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology as follows:

“Mary Shindler, better known as Mrs. Dana, was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, Feb. 15, 1810, the daughter of a Congregational minister. She followed the preaching of William Miller in her search for Bible truth. In 1835 she was married to Charles E. Dana, of New York, and removed with him to Bloomington, now Muscatine, Iowa, in 1838. Mr. Dana and their young son died the next year, and Mrs. Dana returned to South Carolina. Subsequently she was married to the Rev. Robert D. Shindler, who was Professor in Shelby College, Kentucky, in 1851, and afterwards in Texas. Mary died on February 8, 1883, at Nacogdoches, Texas, where she lived with her son Robert.

“As Mary S. B. Dana she published the Southern Harp, 1840, and the Northern Harp, 1841. From these works her hymns have been taken, 8 of which are in T. O. Summers’s Songs of Zion, 1851.”

Tags: Heaven, New Jerusalem, Pilgrim, Stranger