Hymns, Selected and Original ‎#718

718. Why do we mourn departing friends?

1 Why do we mourn departing friends?
Or shake at death's alarms?
'Tis but the voice that Jesus sends,
To call them to his arms.

2 Are we not tending upward too
As fast as time can move?
Nor should we wish the hours more slow
To keep us from our love.

3 Why should we tremble to convey
Their bodies to the tomb?
There the dear flesh of Jesus lay,
And left a long perfume.

4 The graves of all his saints he bless'd,
And soften'd every bed;
Where should the dying members rest,
But with their dying Head?

5 Thence he arose, ascending high,
And show'd our feet the way;
Up to the Lord our flesh shall fly
At the great rising-day.

6 Then let the last loud trumpet sound,
And bid our kindred rise,
Awake, ye nations under ground,
Ye saints, ascend the skies.

Text Information

• First Line: Why do we mourn departing friends?
• Meter: C. M.
• Publication Date: 1828
• Topic: Death: Death of the pious; The Death and Burial of a Saint
• Notes: Now Public Domain.

Tune Information

(No tune information)