Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
Revelation 2:10
Words: Joseph the Hymnographer, 9th Century (Των ίερων άθλόφορων). Translated from Greek to English by John M. Neale, 1862, alt.
Music: Tempus Adest Floridum 13th Century spring carol. First published in the Swedish Piae Cantiones, 1582 (🔊 pdf nwc).
Let us now our voices raise,
Wake the day with gladness;
God Himself to joy and praise
Turns our human sadness;
Joy that martyrs won their crown,
Opened heav’ns bright portal,
When they laid the mortal down
For the life immortal.
Never flinched they from the flame,
From the torment never;
Vain the tyrant’s sharpest aim,
Vain each fierce endeavor:
For by faith they saw the land
Decked in all its glory,
Where triumphant now they stand
With the victor’s story.
Up and follow, Christian men!
Press through toil and sorrow;
Spurn the night of fear, and then,
O the glorious morrow!
Who will venture on the strife;
Who will first begin it?
Who will grasp the land of life?
Warriors, up and win it!