O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
1 Corinthians 15:55
Words: Isaac Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs 1707. The original title was O for an Overcoming Faith; it was recast in the Church of Scotland’s Translations and Paraphrases in 1781, where the revised version was attributed to William Cameron.
Music: Mount Auburn George Kingsley (1811–1884) (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good picture of Cameron or Kingsley (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
When the last trumpet’s awful voice
This rending earth shall shake;
When opening graves shall yield their charge
And dust to life awake;
Those bodies that corrupted fell
Shall incorrupt arise,
And mortal forms shall spring to life
Immortal in the skies.
Behold, what heavenly prophets sung
Is now at last fulfilled;
And Death yields up his ancient reign,
And, vanquished, quits the field.
Let Faith exalt her joyful voice,
And now in triumph sing:
O Grave, where is thy victory?
And where, O Death, thy sting?