Indexes for The Sacred Harp, 1991 Edition
163b China
Words: Isaac Watts, 1707
Music: Timothy Swan, 1801
Meter: Common Meter (8,6,8,6)
Why do we mourn departing friends,
Or shake at death’s alarms?
’Tis but the voice that Jesus sends,
To call them to His arms.
Why should we tremble to convey
Their bodies to the tomb?
There the dear flesh of Jesus lay,
And vanished all the gloom.
Thence He arose, ascended high,
And showed our feet the way;
Up to the Lord our souls shall fly,
At the great rising day.
Or shake at death’s alarms?
’Tis but the voice that Jesus sends,
To call them to His arms.
Why should we tremble to convey
Their bodies to the tomb?
There the dear flesh of Jesus lay,
And vanished all the gloom.
Thence He arose, ascended high,
And showed our feet the way;
Up to the Lord our souls shall fly,
At the great rising day.