Dear Chris­tian peo­ple, all re­joice,
Each soul with joy up­spring­ing;
Pour forth one song with heart and voice,
With love and glad­ness sing­ing.
Give thanks to God, our Lord above—
Thanks for His mi­ra­cle of love;
Dearly He hath re­deemed us!

The de­vil’s cap­tive bound I lay,
Lay in death’s chains for­lorn;
My sins dis­tressed me night and day—
The sin with­in me born;
I could not do the thing I would,
In all my life was no­thing good,
Sin had pos­sessed me whol­ly.

My good works could no com­fort shed,
Worthless must they be rat­ed;
My free will to all good was dead,
And God’s just judg­ments hat­ed.
Me of all hope my sins be­reft:
Nothing but death to me was left,
And death was hell’s dark por­tal.

Then God saw with deep pi­ty moved
My grief that knew no mea­sure;
Pitying He saw, and free­ly loved—
To save me was His plea­sure.
The Fa­ther’s heart to me was stirred.
He saved me with no so­ver­eign word,
His ve­ry best it cost Him.

He spoke to His be­lov­èd Son
With in­fi­nite com­pas­sion,
Go hence, My heart’s most pre­cious crown,
Be to the lost sal­va­tion;
Death, his re­lent­less ty­rant, slay,
And bear him from his sins away,
With Thee to live for ev­er.

Willing the Son took that be­hest,
Born of a maid­en mo­ther,
To His own earth He came a guest,
And made Him­self my bro­ther.
All se­cret­ly He went His way,
Veiled in my mor­tal flesh He lay,
And thus the foe He van­quished.

He said to me, “Cling close to Me,
Thy sor­rows now are end­ing;
Freely I gave My­self for thee,
Thy life with Mine de­fend­ing;
For I am thine, and thou art Mine,
And where I am there thou shalt shine,
The foe shall ne­ver reach us.

“True, He will shed My heart’s life blood,
And tor­ture Me to death;
All this I suf­fer for thy good,
This hold with ear­nest faith.
Death di­eth through My life di­vine;
I sin­less bear those sins of thine,
And so shalt thou be res­cued.

“I rise again to Heav’n from hence,
High to My Fa­ther soar­ing,
Thy Mas­ter there to be, and thence,
My Spir­it on thee pour­ing;
In ev­ery grief to com­fort thee,
And teach thee more and more of Me,
Into all truth still guid­ing.

What I have done and taught on earth,
Do thou, and teach, none dread­ing;
That so God’s king­dom may go forth,
And His high praise be spread­ing;
And guard thee from the words of men,
Lest the great joy be lost again;
Thus my last charge I leave thee.