The Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces.
Isaiah 25:8
Words: Johann W. Meinhold, 1835 (Guter Hirt, du hast gestillt). Translated from German to English by Catherine Winkworth, Lyra Germanica, second series, 1858, page 122.
Music: Consolation (Cramer) Francis Cramer, 1879 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good picture of Cramer (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
Gentle Shepherd, Thou hast stilled
Now Thy little lamb’s brief weeping;
Ah, how peaceful, pale and mild,
In its narrow bed ’tis sleeping,
And no sigh of anguish sore
Heaves that little bosom more.
In this world of care and pain,
Lord, Thou wouldst no longer leave it;
To the sunny, heavenly plain
Thou dost now with joy receive it;
Clothed in robes of spotless white,
Now it dwells with Thee in light.
Ah, Lord Jesus, grant that we
Where it lives may soon be living,
And the lovely pastures see
That its heavenly food are giving;
Then the gain of death we prove,
Though Thou take what most we love.
Part 2, for an adult (requires a tune of different meter):
God, we thank Thee; not in vain
Lived our friend in Thee believing;
Not for him can we be grieving:
Ours the loss, but his the gain.
Ours the vanity of sorrow,
His the vision from the height;
His today, and ours tomorrow,
Change and awe and love and light.
What Thou doest, Lord, is good:
Though his body now is sleeping,
Lives his spirit in Thy keeping,
Pain and sorrow understood.
Grant him rest among the living,
Bring him to Thy vision clear,
All his sin in love forgiving
When as judge Thou dost appear.