Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain

Above:  Icon of the Resurrection

Image in the Public Domain

Original Greek Text (700s) by St. John of Damascus

English Translation from Christian Remembrances (1859), by John Mason Neale (1818-1866)

Hymn Source = The English Hymnal (1906), The Church of England

The reference to Christian Remembrances comes from William Gustave Polack, The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal, Second Edition (1942).

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Come, ye faithful raise the strain

Of triumphant gladness;

God hath brought his Israel

Into joy from sadness;

Loosed from Pharaoh’s bitter yoke

Jacob’s sons and daughters;

Led them with unmoistened foot

Through the Red Sea waters.

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‘Tis the Spring of souls to-day;

Christ hath burst his prison,

And from three days’ sleep in death

As a Sun hath risen;

All the winter of our sins

Long and dark, is flying

From his Light, to whom we give

Laud and praise undying.

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Now the Queen of seasons, bright

With the Day of splendour,

With the royal Feast of feasts,

Comes its joy to render;

Comes to glad Jerusalem

Who with true affection

Welcomes in unwearied strains

Jesu’s Resurrection.

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Neither might the gates of death,

Nor the tomb’s dark portal,

Nor the watchers, nor the seal,

Hold thee as a mortal;

But to-day amidst the twelve

Thou didst stand, bestowing

That thy peace which evermore

Passeth human knowing.