1 God bids his people on the earth,
Before he comes and calls them hence
To live unknit to home and hearth,
Like far bound travelers in tents.

Chorus:
We'll live in tents until our feet
Shall reach the land by sin untrod,
The gate of pearl, the golden street,
Whose Builder and whose Maker, God.

2 It is his will that we shall pass
Like strangers, sep'rate and aside
From all the vain and worldly mass
That crowd the Babylons of pride. [Chorus]

3 He'd have us rear no stately towers,
Sink no foundation walls of stone,
But camp each night a few short hours,
And ere the morrow's dawn move on. [Chorus]

4 O brother, whatsoever chain
Binds us to fleshly lust and strife,
Here let us rend it in God's name,
And live, henceforth, the pilgrim life. [Chorus]