1 Earth to earth and dust to dust,
Lord, we own the sentence just;
Head and tongue, and hand and heart,
All in guilt have borne their part;
Righteous is the common doom,
All must moulder in the tomb.
2 Like the seed in spring-time sown,
Like the leaves in autumn strown,
Low these goodly frames shall lie,
All our pomp and glory die;
Soon the spoiler seeks his prey,
Soon he bears us all away.
3 Yet the seed, upraised, again
Clothes with green the smiling plain;
Onward as the seasons move,
Leaves and blossoms deck the grove;
And shall we forgotten lie,
Lost forever when we die?
4 Lord, from nature's gloomy night
Turn we to the gospel's light;
Thou didst triumph o'er the grave,
Thou wilt all thy people save;
Ransomed by thy blood they rise,
Mounting victors to the skies.
Source: The Seventh-Day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book: for use in divine worship #956
First Line: | Earth to earth and dust to dust, Lord, we own the sentence just |
Author: | John Hampden Gurney |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Earth to earth, and dust to dust. Lord, we own, &c. J. H. Gurney. [The Resurrection.] Contributed to his Collection of Hymns. (Lutterworth Collection), 1838, No. 42, in 4 stanzas of 6 lines, and repeated in his Psalms & Hymns (Marylebone Collection), 1851, No. 36. It is given, and generally unaltered, in several of the best collections in Great Britain and America. It is a distinct hymn in every way from Dr. G. Croly's "Earth to earth, and dust to dust! Here the evil and the just" (Lyra Britannica, 1867, p. 170), and is very suitable for funerals.
--John Julian Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)