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Home  »  The Poets’ Bible  »  Easter Hymn

W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895.

Easter Hymn

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815–1881)

CHRIST is risen! He is not here

Chain’d within our earthly sphere;

As in garb of flesh before,

Henceforth know we Him no more.

Christ is risen! Cross and tomb

Sink behind in passing gloom!

From these shadows drear and dim,

We must rise and live with Him.

Christ is risen! Our life-long sorrow

Fades before a brighter morrow.

For a time our courses sever,

Soon to be rejoin’d for ever.

Christ is risen! The truth that died

Mock’d and scourged and crucified,

Will unquestion’d mount on high,

Next to God’s own majesty.

Christ is risen! Deep within

Every charnel-house of sin

Lives a spark, which yet may shine

Radiant with a life divine.

Christ is risen! The things of earth

Lose their power and change their worth,

As we soar to things above—

Cloudless light and boundless Love.

Christ is risen! Lo, all is new,

Hail the coming Good and True!

From the old world’s weight releas’d,

Therefore let us keep the Feast.

Keep the feast with mind sincere

Conscience as the noontide clear,

Heart untouch’d by falsehood’s leaven,

Free-born citizens of heaven.