Scripture Verse

Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise. Luke 23:43

Introduction

portrait
Percy Dearmer (1867–1936)

Words: Au­re­li­us Pru­den­ti­us, Li­ber Ca­the­me­ri­non, 4th Cen­tu­ry (De­us ig­nee fons ani­mar­um). Trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by Per­cy Dear­mer in The Eng­lish Hym­nal (Lon­don: Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 1906), num­ber 352.

Music: Old 124th Ge­ne­van Psal­ter, 1551 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Lyrics

Father of spir­its, whose di­vine con­trol
Doth bind the soul and bo­dy into one;
Thou wilt re­store this bo­dy now un­done;
For once it was the man­sion of a soul,
Where dwelt the glow­ing wisdom of Thy Son.

Thou, mak­er of the bo­dy, dost or­dain
That this Thine im­age, mold­ed by Thy will,
Our ev­ery hope in glo­ry shall ful­fill;
So, till the bo­dy Thou dost build again,
Thou wilt pre­serve the spir­it freed from ill.

In that blest re­gion shall this spir­it dwell
Where flow­ers un­dy­ing bloom on ev­ery side:
For lo, we trust Thy Word, O Cru­ci­fied,
When in Thy tri­umph over death and hell,
The thief for­giv­en took Thee for his guide.

Our bro­ther go­eth by the shin­ing way,
That ev­er to the faith­ful op­en lies:
Lord, train Thy ser­vant now in pa­ra­dise,
And bless him in his fa­therland, we pray,
Till Thou shalt bid his bo­dy to arise.

or

Our sis­ter go­eth by the shin­ing way,
That ev­er to the faith­ful op­en lies:
Lord, train Thy ser­vant now in pa­ra­dise,
And bless her in her fa­ther­land, we pray,
Till Thou shalt bid her bo­dy to arise.