How Vain Is All Beneath the Skies

Verse 1 How vain is all beneath the skies! How transient ev'ry earthly bliss!
How slender all the fondest ties That bind us to a world like this!

Verse 2 The evening cloud, the morning dew, The with'ring grass, the fading flow'r,
Of earthly hopes our emblems true— The glories of a passing hour.

Verse 3 But though earth's fairest blossoms die, And all beneath the skies is vain,
There is a land whose confines lie Beyond the reach of care and pain.

Verse 4 Then let the hope of joys to come Dispel our cares and chase our fears;
If God be ours, we're trav'ling home, Though passing through a vale of tears.