I died, but now I am alive forevermore.
Revelation 1:18
Words: George D. Wildes, 1871.
Music: From Children’s Praise, by Julius H. Waterbury (Rochester, New York, and New York City: D. M. Dewey and Pott, Young & Company, 1871), number 86 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good photo of Wildes (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
Jesus lives! O day of days!
Glad we bring our grateful praise;
He is risen! Gone the gloom,
Angels sit within the tomb.
Vain the taunt of Jew denying,
Vain the vaunt o’er Jesus dying,
Heav’nly voices, from the grave,
Now proclaim His power to save.
Refrain
He is risen! Come and see,
How He triumphed mightily!
Conqueror thus o’er all His foes,
Jesus from the dead arose.
Lord and Prophet, spake He not?
Have ye His own words forgot,
Telling, while in Galilee,
Thus the victory should be?
How through scorn and dire affliction,
Thorny way and crucifixion,
Vanquished death, and rent the grave—
Christ the King should live to save.
Refrain
Tearful to the sepulcher
Mary comes in grief and fear;
Sees the stone now rolled away,
Hears the waiting angels say:
Why the dead among the living
Lo! The Lord life-giving
Seek ye?
Rises, vain the watch, the grave:
Prince of Life, He lives to save!
Refrain
Welcome then, the day of days!
Lord, ’tis Thine our tuneful praise;
Thine, for us, the Tempted, Tried,
Thine, for us, the Crucified;
Thine for us the Resurrection,
Thine the Life, the Sure Protection.
Savior! Sovereign over the grave,
May we know Thy power to save.
He is risen! joyfully,
Lord! we raise our song to Thee,
Conqueror thus o’er all His foes,
Jesus from the dead arose.