Scripture Verse

The Lord Himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 1 Thessalonians 4:16

Introduction

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John Cennick (1718–1755)
National Portrait Gallery

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Words: John Cen­nick, 1752. Ma­ny cen­tos of this hymn have been pub­lished. The first ver­sion be­low is from Songs of Grace and Glo­ry, ed­it­ed by Charles B. Snepp (Lon­don: W. Hunt, 1872), num­ber 314. For an­oth­er ver­sion, see Lo, He Comes with Clouds Des­cend­ing.

Music: Bene­dic­tion (Mann) Ar­thur H. Mann, 1879 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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Arthur H. Mann (1850–1929)

Lyrics

Lo! He com­eth! count­less trum­pets
Blow to raise the sleep­ing dead!
’Mid ten thou­sand saints and an­gels,
See the great ex­alt­ed Head!
Hallelujah!
Welcome, wel­come, Son of God!

Full of joy­ful ex­pec­ta­tion,
Saints be­hold their Lord ap­pear;
Truth and jus­tice go before Him;
Now the joy­ful sen­tence hear!
Hallelujah!
Welcome sounds through­out the air!

Come, ye bless­èd of My Fa­ther,
Enter in­to life and joy!
Banish all your fears and sor­rows,
Endless praise be your em­ploy!
Hallelujah!
Welcome, wel­come to the skies.

Now at once they rise to glo­ry,
Jesus brings them to the King;
There with all the hosts of Hea­ven,
They eter­nal an­thems sing:
Hallelujah!
Boundless glo­ry to the Lamb!

This is the ear­li­est known print­ed ver­sion of the text, from Cen­nick’s Col­lect­ion of Sac­red Hymns, fifth edi­tion (Dub­lin: Sam­uel Pow­ell, 1752):

Lo! He com­eth, count­less trum­pets
Blow before His bloody sign!
’Midst ten thou­sand saints and angels,
See the Cru­ci­fied shine.
Allelujah!
Welcome, wel­come, bleed­ing Lamb!

Now His mer­its by the harp­ers,
Thro’ the eter­nal deep re­sounds!
Now re­splen­dent shine His nail-prints,
Every eye shall see His wounds;
They who pierced Him,
Shall at His ap­pearing wail.

Every is­land, sea, and mount­ain,
Heaven and earth shall flee away!
All who hate Him must, ashamed,
Hear the trump pro­claim His day:
Come to judg­ment!
Stand be­fore the Son of Man!

All who love Him view His glo­ry,
Shining in His bruised face:
His dear per­son on the rain­bow,
Now His peo­ple’s heads shall raise:
Happy mourn­ers!
Now on clouds He comes! He comes!

Now re­demp­tion, long ex­pect­ed,
See, in so­lemn pomp ap­pear:
All His peo­ple, once des­pised,
Now shall meet Him in the air:
Allelujah!
Now the pro­mised king­dom’s come!

View Him smil­ing, now de­ter­mined
Every ev­il to de­stroy!
All the na­tions now shall sing Him
Songs of ev­er­last­ing joy!
O come quick­ly!
Allelujah! come Lord, come!