Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
John 12:24
Words: George P. Grantham (1833–1885). Appeared in Carols Old and Carols New, edited by Charles L. Hutchins (Boston, Massachusetts: The Parish Choir, 1916), number 234, alt.
Music: Essonne Robert F. Smith (1833–1905) (🔊 
).
Alternate Tune:
) (skips last line of refrain below)If you know where to get a good photo of Grantham or Smith (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels), would you send us an e-mail?
In the star of morning
Rising in the sky,
Bright and full of beauty,
Fair to mortal eye,
From the womb of darkness,
Called aloft to shine,
Of the Resurrection
See the holy sign!
Refrain
All the works of nature
Still their powers employ,
Ever to prefigure
Earth’s true Easter joy—
Our true Easter joy!
When the spring-tide showers
Fall o’er hill and plain,
When the trees and flowers
Bloom on earth again;
Then the seed, long buried,
Hid from mortal view,
In the garb of beauty
Bursteth forth anew.
Refrain
As the shades of twilight
Softly fade away,
And the world from slumber
Hails another day,
In the soul awaking,
And from dreamland torn,
See the type foreshadow
Man’s great Easter morn!
Refrain
In the works of nature
Wheresoever viewed,
In the cloud and sunshine,
Calm, and tempest rude:
In the earth about us,
In the circling air,
Types of resurrection
Meet us eveywhere.
Refrain
