Funeral of a Christian

Representative Text

1 Hark! a voice divides the sky:
Happy are the faithful dead,
In the Lord who sweetly die;
They from all their toils are freed.

2 Them the Spirit hath declared
Blest, unutterably blest;
Jesus is their great Reward,
Jesus is their endless Rest.

3 Followed by their works, they go
Where their Head had gone before;
Reconciled by grace below,
Grace hath opened mercy’s door.

4 Justified through faith alone,
Here they knew their sins forgiven;
Here they laid their burden down,
Hallowed and made meet for heaven.

5 When from flesh the spirit freed
Hastens homeward to return,
Mortals cry: "A man is dead!"
Angels sing: "A child is born!"

Source: Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-book #536

Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Hark, a voice divides the sky
Title: Funeral of a Christian
Author: Charles Wesley
Meter: 7.7.7.7
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Hark, a voice divides the sky. C. Wesley. [Burial.] Published in Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1742, in 5 stanzas of 8 lines (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. ii. p. 189). In 1780 it was given with slight alterations in the Wesleyan Hymn Book as No. 50, and repeated in the revised edition 1875, No. 51. This is the text which is usually followed in Great Britain and America. It is sometimes found in an abbreviated form, as in Martineau's Hymns, 1840 and 1873.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

SALZBURG (Hintze)

The tune SALZBURG, named after the Austrian city made famous by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was first published anonymously in the nineteenth edition of Praxis Pietatis Melica (1678); in that hymnbook's twenty-fourth edition (1690) the tune was attributed to Jakob Hintze (b. Bernau, Germany, 1622; d. B…

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PLEYEL'S HYMN


MERCY (Gottschalk)


Timeline

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The Cyber Hymnal #2670
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The Cyber Hymnal #2670

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