Set Bounds to Your Sorrow

1 Set bounds to thy sorrow and grieving,
And seek in God's word thy relieving;
Let mourning not grow into sinning;
This dying is true life's beginning.

2 Bound up in its shroud, amidst weeping,
This corpse is laid down to its sleeping,
Let emblems of sleep be the token,
That one day death's bonds shall be broken.

3 Although now the heart no more beateth,
The eye with thine own never meeteth,
God's sleeping ones are not forsaken;
From slumber He'll bid them awaken

4 This body, so wasted and shattered,
This dust that 'midst dust shall be scattered,
Shall then be raised up, and inherit
New life with the glorified spirits.

5 The grain sown to-day in the furrow,
No trace leaves behind it to-morrow,
Yet lo, soon the fresh blade is springing,
Glad cheer to the husbandman bringing!

6 O Earth, we lay down in thy bosom
A seed from which life once shall blossom;
Receive it in charge of its Maker:
'Tis therefore we call thee God's acre.

7 A soul in this frame was residing
That trustfully followed Christ's guiding,
And now sees unveiled the salvation
It hoped for with glad expectation.

8 This body--O Earth, thou must shield it;
Now to thy safe keeping we yield it,
Till Christ comes again, to awake it
And like to His body to make it.

9 We praise Thee and thank Thee, O Father,
That Thou Thine own children dost gather
To sleep after life's fitful story;
From sleep, to the mansions of glory.

Source: Hymn Book: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran schools and congregations #121