AN EASTER HYMN

CHRIST, the Lord, is risen to-day;

Raise your joys and triumphs high :
Hallelujah!

Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply :
Hallelujah!

Love's redeeming work is done,
Fought the fight, the battle won:
Lo! our sun's eclipse is o'er;
Lo! he sets in blood no more.

Vain the stone, the watch, the seal,
Christ hath burst the gates of hell :
Death in vain forbids him rise,
Christ hath opened paradise.

Lives again our glorious king:
Where, O death, is now thy sting?
Once he died, our souls to save:
Where thy victory, O 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.

CHARLES WESLEY

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

(Haverhill, Mass., Dec. 17, 1807 - Hampton Falls, N. H., Sept. 7, 1892), was a man whose beautiful catholicity of spirit is clearly seen in all the hymns that the churches have adopted from his poems. Perhaps the rapidly growing popularity of his hymns is indicative of a spread in the churches of the spirit which be so earnestly advocated. The whole of the beautiful poem entitled “Our Master,” from which these stanzas are taken, should be read in order to appreciate fully the poet's spirit in the hymn.

OUR MASTER

We may not climb the heavenly steeps

To bring the Lord Christ down;
In vain we search the lowest deeps,
For him no depths can drown.

But warm, sweet, tender even yet
A present help is he;

And faith has still its Olivet,

And love its Galilee.

The healing of the seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;

We touch him in life's throng and press,
And we are whole again.

Through him the first fond prayers are said
Our lips of childhood frame;
The last low whispers of our dead
Are burdened with his name.

O Lord and Master of us all,
Whate'er our name or sign,
We own thy sway, we hear thy call,
We test our lives by thine.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

EDWARD HENRY BICKerstETH (London, Jan. 25, 1825), an English Episcopalian, who was created bishop of Exeter in 1885, is the author of a religious poem, "Yesterday, To-day, and Forever," of the hymnal companion to the Book of Common Prayer, and of a number of hymns. "Perfect Peace" is especially noteworthy as the favorite hymn of Queen Victoria, being often sung by request in the services which she attended. While this is one of the new hymns, having been written but a few years, it is finding a place in all the standard collections, and its growing popularity will probably give it a permanent place amongst the great hymns. It is usually sung to the stately tune “Pax Tecum.”

PERFECT PEACE

PEACE, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin? The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed? To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.

Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round? On Jesus' bosom naught but calm is found.

Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?
In Jesus' keeping we are safe and they.

Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?
Jesus we know and he is on the throne.

Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours?
Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers.

It is enough; earth's struggles soon shall cease, And Jesus call us to heaven's perfect peace.

EDWARD HENRY BICKERSTETH