Songs 53

¹Take comfort, Christians, when your friends

in Jesus fall asleep;

Their better being never ends;

why then dejected weep?

²Why inconsolable, as those

to whom no hope is giv’n?

Death is the messenger of peace,

and calls the soul to heav’n.

³As Jesus dy’d, and rose again

victorious from the dead;

So his disciples rise, and reign

with their triumphant Head.

⁴The time draws nigh, when from the clouds

Christ shall with shouts descend,

And the last trumpet’s awful voice

the heav’ns and earth shall rend.

⁵Then they who live shall changed be,

and they who sleep shall wake;

The graves shall yield their ancient charge,

and earth’s foundations shake.

⁶The saints of God, from death set free,

with joy shall mount on high;

The heav’nly hosts with praises loud

shall meet them in the sky.

⁷Together to their Father’s house

with joyful hearts they go;

And dwell for ever with the Lord,

beyond the reach of woe.

⁸A few short years of evil past,

we reach the happy shore,

Where death‐divided friends at last

shall meet, to part no more.