In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
Matthew 2:18
Words: Reginald Heber (1783–1826). Published posthumously in Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (London: J. Murray, 1827), page 27.
Music: Claudius Arthur H. Mann, in The Methodist Hymnal (New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1905), number 595 (🔊 pdf nwc).
Alternate Tune:
Oh weep not o’er thy children’s tomb,
Oh Rachel, weep not so!
The bud is cropped by martyrdom,
The flower in Heav’n shall blow! *
Firstlings of faith! the murderer’s knife
Has missed its deadliest aim:
The God for whom they gave their life,
For them to suffer came!
Though feeble were their days and few,
Baptized in blood and pain,
He knows them, whom they never knew,
And they shall live again.
Then weep not o’er thy children’s tomb,
Oh Rachel, weep not so!
The bud is cropped by martyrdom,
The flower in Heav’n shall blow! *
* If desired, substituteThe flower in Heav’n shall grow