Hymnal: The Christian Hymn Book
Date: 1865
Compiler: Alexander Campbell
Publisher/Printer: Central Book Concern
First Line: Why do we mourn departing friends
Topic: The Present and the Future/Life and Death
Writer: <no first name given> Watts
Composer:
Meter: CM
Tune:
Hymn Number: 1057
Page Number: 625, click to see hymnal pages
LyicsWhy do we mourn departing friends,
Or shake at death's alarms?
'Tis but the voice that Jesus sends
To call them to his arms.
Are we not tending upward, too,
As fast as time can move?
Nor would we wish the time more slow
To keep us from our Love.
Why should we tremble to convey
Their bodies to the tomb?
'T was there the flesh of Jesus lay,
Amid its silent gloom.
The graves of all the saints he blest,
And soften'd ev'ry bed;
Where should the dying members rest,
But with their dying Head?
Thence he arose, ascending high,
And show'd our feet the way;
Up to the Lord our souls shall fly,
At the great rising day.
Then let the last loud trumpet sound,
And bid our kindred rise:
Awake, ye nations under ground;
Ye saints, ascend the skies.