Will the circle be unbroken

When the shades of earth are past?

Will the family stand united

In Heaven’s glory-land at last?

Will the circle be unbroken –

Every member in their place,

Sons and daughters – mother, father,

Saved by God’s amazing grace?

Each there by their faith in Jesus,

Cleansed by His atoning blood,

Each there by the Spirit’s leading,

Stood before the Throne of God.

O will the circle be unbroken

With a loved one passed away -

It is only for a moment

This brief parting of the way:

We will meet again in glory

Gathered by the sea of glass,

But will the circle be unbroken,

Will we all be there at last?

With a mother home in Heaven,

Who is left for them to pray?

Will the children be forgotten,

In that dark and gloomy day?

Not a one of them forgotten,

Mothers’ prayers like incense sweet

Are laid up with God in Heaven,

And shall evermore entreat:

He remembers in His heaven

Every sigh, and tear, and prayer –

Freshly kept as in a bottle,

Every burden she did bear -

As she prayed for their salvation,

As she bore each name in love,

That the circle be unbroken

In that happy Home above!

Will the circle be unbroken?

That’s a question with a doubt!

Will the circle be unbroken,

Or will someone be left out?

Someone left outside to perish,

Bearing God’s eternal wrath,

Knowing well the way to Heaven,

But preferred the sceptics laugh!

Well they knew salvation’s story,

How the Saviour on the Tree

Bore the sinner’s dreadful judgement,

Bore sin’s curse to set him free!

Will the circle be unbroken

When the Lord comes with a ‘shout’!

And those ancient graves are opened,

And the ‘dead in Christ’ rise out!

Will we all rise up in glory,

Meet the Saviour ‘in the air’!

O will that circle be unbroken,

And will you – my child – be there?

This is not mere speculation –

Something you believe or not!

For the Word of God is certain,

Every tittle, every jot!

Will the circle be unbroken

When the saints go marching in,

When without one spot or wrinkle,

Sanctified - without – within—

Christ’s pure Bride in all her beauty

Is presented at the Throne,

When the Lamb, triumphant leading,

Joyfully presents His own:

In the splendour of the glory

Which the blood-washed saints will share,

Will the circle be unbroken,

And will you, my child, be there?

Will the circle be unbroken

When that Holy City bright,

Coming down from God in heaven,

With its beauteous crystal light;

A new earth and a new heaven,

No more night, but endless day,

God with men will then be dwelling,

Former things have passed away!

When the things of time are ended,

Dawns at last Christ’s Kingdom fair!

Will the circle be unbroken,

And will you, dear child, be there?

This poem was suggested to me when I was surfing the net and came across Ada R Habershon’s famous old hymn “Will the Circle be Unbroken”. No one sings these old hymns any more, they are outdated and unintelligible to this irreligious and godless generation! However, the words of the title haunted me, and I could not get them out of my mind, and I believe God led me to write the lines as presented here!