Death and Resurrection

Dark is the hour when death prevails

No. 967
Metre C. H. M.
Tune HOPE.
Words U. Smith.
Music Unknown.
Key F major
Time 4/4
5 stanzas

Words

Dark is the hour when death prevails,And triumphs o'er the just,—A painful void within the breast,When dust goes back to dust;And solemn is the pall, the bier,That bears them from our presence here.

But there 's a bright, a glorious hope,That scatters death's dark gloom;It cheers the saddened spirits up,It gilds the Christian's tomb;It brings the resurrection near,When those we love shall re-appear.

Then mourn we not as those whose hopesWith fleeting life depart;For we have heard a voice from heavenTo every stricken heart:"Blest are the dead, forever blest,Who from henceforth in Jesus rest."

With kind regard the Lord beholdsHis saints when called to die,And precious in his holy sightTheir sacred dust shall lieTill all these storms of life are o'er,And they shall rise to die no more.

A few more days, and we shall meetThe loved whose toil is o'er,And plant with joy our bounding feetOn Canaan's radiant shore,Where, free from all earth's cares and fears,We 'll part no more through endless years.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: running head «DEATH AND RESURRECTION.»; hymn number «967» (large, left), tune name «HOPE.» (capitals and small capitals) and the metre «C. H. M.» centred over the music, «UNKNOWN.» at the right (capitals and small capitals). The words scan 8.6.8.6.8.8. Stanza 1 is interlinear, between the staves, in a small condensed bold type, three verse lines per system, with «1.» before «Dark»; its six verse lines are given here as poetry. «prevails,» is printed as one word under two notes; «tri-umphs», «pain-ful», «with - in», «sol - emn» and «pres - ence» are printed in syllables and joined here. The dash after «just,» is a long dash (the next word «A» follows it without a space). Stanzas 2–5 are printed as text in the left column directly under the music (no reference line), the stanza numbers without a full stop («2 But»), numbered «2.» here like stanza 1; lines 2 and 4 of each stanza are indented in the print (lines 1, 3, 5 and 6 flush), and the indentation of the text stanzas is followed for stanza 1 too. The opening quotation mark of stanza 3, line 5 hangs in the margin. «U. Smith.» in italics after stanza 5. The printer's thin space before «;» and «:» («dust ;», «gloom ;», «tomb ;», «depart ;», «heart :») is closed up here; the printer's curly apostrophes and quotation marks are written straight. «there 's» (stanza 2, line 1) and «We 'll» (stanza 5, line 6) are printed with a space before the apostrophe and are kept so (as in hymns 83, 93 and 196). «re-appear» is printed with its hyphen. Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's.