Samuel Crossman

Samuel Crossman Poems

Samuel Crossman Biography

Samuel Crossman (1623 – 4 February 1683) was a minister of the Church of England and a hymnwriter. He was born at Bradfield Monachorum, Suffolk, England. Crossman earned a Bachelor of Divinity at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, and was Prebendary of Bristol. After graduation, he ministered to both an Anglican congregation at All Saints, Sudbury, and to a Puritan congregation simultaneously. Crossman sympathized with the Puritan cause, and attended the 1661 Savoy Conference, which attempted to update the Book of Common Prayer so that both Puritans and Anglicans could use it. The conference failed, and the 1662 Act of Uniformity expelled Crossman along with some 2,000 other Puritan-leaning ministers from the Church of England. He renounced his Puritan affiliations shortly afterward, and was ordained in 1665, becoming a royal chaplain. He received a post at Bristol in 1667, and became Dean of Bristol Cathedral in 1683. He died on 4 February 1683, at Bristol, and lies buried in the south aisle of the cathedral at Bristol. Several of Crossman's hymns are preserved in the Sacred Harp.)

The Best Poem Of Samuel Crossman

Jerusalem On High

Jerusalem on high
my song and city is,
my home whene'er I die,
the center of my bliss;

Refrain:


O happy place!
When shall I be,
my God, with thee,
to see thy face?


There dwells my Lord, my King,
judged here unfit to live
there angels to him sing,
and lowly homage give:


Refrain


The patriarchs of old
there from their travels cease;
the prophets there behold
their longed-for Prince of Peace.


Refrain


The Lamb's apostles there
I might with joy behold,
the harpers I might hear
harping on harps of gold:


Refrain


The bleeding martyrs, they
within those courts are found,
all clothed in pure array,
their scars with glory crowned:


Refrain


Ah woe is me! that I
in Kedar's tents here stay;
no place like that on high;
Lord, thither guide my way.


Refrain

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