The hope of the resurrection

1094 C. M.
Certainty the resurrection dispels the gloom of the grave.

WHY do we mourn for dying 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 once the flesh of Jesus lay,
   And left a long perfume.

4 The graves of all his saints he blest,
   And soften’d every bed:
   There 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.
                         Isaac Watts
                         Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)