Scripture Verse

I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13

Introduction

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Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems (Bris­tol, Eng­land: Fe­lix Far­ley, 1742), pag­es 127–28.

Music: Am­ster­dam James Nar­es, in The Foun­de­ry Col­lect­ion, 1742 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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James Nares (1715–1783)

Lyrics

Let the world lament their dead,
As sorrowing without hope;
When a friend of ours is freed,
We cheerfully look up,
Cannot murmur or complain,
For our dead we cannot grieve,
Death to them, to us, is gain;
In Je­sus we believe.

We believe that Christ our head
For us resigned His breath,
He was numbered with the dead,
And dying conquered death;
Burst the barriers of the tomb:
Death could Him no longer keep,
He is the first-fruits become
Of those in Him that sleep.

God, who Him to life restored,
Shall all His members raise,
Bring them quickened with their Lord,
The children of His grace.
We who then on earth remain,
Shall not sooner be brought home;
All the dead shall rise again
To meet the general doom.

Jesus, faithful to His word,
Shall with a shout descend;
All Hea­ven’s host their glo­ri­ous Lord
Shall pompously attend;
Christ shall come with dreadful noise,
Lightnings swift, and thunders loud,
With the great archangel’s voice,
And with the trump of God.

First the dead in Christ shall rise;
Then we who yet remain
Shall be caught up to the skies,
And see our Lord again;
We shall meet Him in the air,
All rapt up to Hea­ven shall be,
See, and love, and praise Him there
To all eternity.

Who can tell the happiness
This glo­ri­ous hope affords!
Joy unuttered we possess
In these reviving words:
Happy while on earth we breathe,
Mightier bliss ordained to know,
Trampling upon sin and death,
To the third Hea­ven we go.