1 Pleased we read in sacred story,
How our Lord resumed his breath;
Where’s, O Grave, thy conquering glory?
Where’s thy sting, thou phantom Death?
Soon thy jaws, restrained from chewing,
Must disgorge their ransomed prey;
Man first gave thee power to ruin;
Man, too, takes that power away.

2 I am Alpha, says the Saviour,
I Omega likewise am!
I was dead and live for ever,
God Almighty and the Lamb.
In the Lord is our perfection,
And in him our boast we’ll make;
We shall share his resurrection,
If we of his death partake.

3 Ye that die without repentance,
Ye must rise when Christ appears;
Rise to hear your dreadful sentence,
While the saints rejoice in theirs:
You to dwell with fiends infernal,
They with Jesus Christ to reign;
They go into life eternal,
You to everlasting pain.