CHRIST the Lord is risen today; Hallelujah!Sons of men and angels say:
Raise your joys and triumphs high:
Sing, ye heavens; thou earth, reply:
Love's redeeming work is done;
Fought the fight, the battle won:
Vain the stone, the watch, the seal;
Christ hath burst the gates of hell:
Lives again our glorious King!
Where, O death, is now thy sting?
Once He died our souls to save:
Where's thy victory, boasting grave?
Soar we now where Christ hath led,
Following our exalted Head:
Made like Him, like Him we rise;
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies:
King of glory! Soul of bliss!
Everlasting life is this,
Thee to know, Thy power to prove,
Thus to sing, and thus to love.
By Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
This glorious Easter hymn which finds its inspiration from the accounts of the Ressurection in the four Gospels and in 1 Corinthians 15, first appeared in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739) with the title "Hymn for Easter Day". Many would agree with W. T. Stead who said, "This hymn has long been accepted as the best English Easter hymn."
