Oh, what songs of the heart

This morning in our staff devotional I was assigned to give the spiritual thought. We sang the hymn "Oh, What Songs of the Heart" (Hymns [1985], no. 286), which was written by Joseph L. Townsend (1849–1942). I then gave a brief history of Brother Townsend's life, his conversion to the Church, a remarkable vision of the Savior he had after joining the Church, and quoted briefly from the nine other well-known hymns he wrote that are in our current hymnal:

"The Day Dawn Is Breaking" (52)
"Nearer, Dear Savior, to Thee (99)
"Reverently and Meekly Now" (185)
"Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words" (232)
"Choose the Right" (239)
"O Thou Rock of Our Salvation" (258)
"Hope of Israel" (259)
"Oh, Holy Words of Truth and Love" (271)
"The Iron Rod" (274)

And, of course, "Oh, What Songs of the Heart," which I want sung at my funeral. This is probably the least known of the ten hymns. I asked by a show of hands how many in our department devotional had known of the hymn before today, and fewer than half the hands went up. It is an upbeat, comforting testimony of what happens after we die:

Oh, what songs of the heart
We shall sing all the day,
When again we assemble at home,
When we meet ne'er to part
With the blest o'er the way,
There no more from our loved ones to roam!
When we meet ne'er to part,
Oh, what songs of the heart
We shall sing in our beautiful home.

Tho our rapture and bliss
There's no song can express,
We will shout, we will sing o'er and o'er,
As we greet with a kiss,
And with joy we carress
All our loved ones that passed on before;
As we greet with a kiss,
In our rapture and bliss,
All our loved ones that passed on before.

Oh, the visions we'll see
In that home of the blest,
There's no word, there's no thought can impart,
But our rapture will be
All the soul can attest,
In the heavenly songs of the heart;
But our rapture will be
In the vision we'll see
Best expressed in the songs of the heart.

Oh, what songs we'll employ!
Oh, what welcome we'll hear!
While our transports of love are complete,
As the heart swells with joy
In embraces most dear
When our heavenly parents we meet!
As the heart swells with joy,
Oh, what songs we'll employ,
When our heavenly parents we meet.

The hymn and the thought were timely. Just after our devotional we learned that the nineteen-year-old daughter of one of our coworkers had been killed earlier this morning in a car accident near Sugar City, Idaho. She was a student at BYU-Idaho.