Pain and toil are over now

Pain and toil are over now

Author: Cecil Frances Alexander
Tune: PRUEN
Published in 13 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Pain and toil are over now;
Bring the spice and bring the myrrh,
Fold the limb and bind the brow,
In the rich man's sepulchre.

2 Sin has bruised the Victor's heel,
Roll the stone and guard it well;
Bring the Roman's boasted seal,
Bring his boldest sentinel.

3 yet the morning's purple ray
Shall present a glorious sight,
Stone by earthquake roll'd away,
Angel guards all robed in white.

Source: Hymnal: according to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America #91

Author: Cecil Frances Alexander

As a small girl, Cecil Frances Humphries (b. Redcross, County Wicklow, Ireland, 1818; Londonderry, Ireland, 1895) wrote poetry in her school's journal. In 1850 she married Rev. William Alexander, who later became the Anglican primate (chief bishop) of Ireland. She showed her concern for disadvantaged people by traveling many miles each day to visit the sick and the poor, providing food, warm clothes, and medical supplies. She and her sister also founded a school for the deaf. Alexander was strongly influenced by the Oxford Movement and by John Keble's Christian Year. Her first book of poetry, Verses for Seasons, was a "Christian Year" for children. She wrote hymns based on the Apostles' Creed, baptism, the Lord's Supper, the Ten Commandment… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Pain and toil are over now
Author: Cecil Frances Alexander
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Cecil F. Alexander, née Humphreys. [Easter Eve.] Published in her Verses for Holy Seasons, &c, 1846, p. 59, in 6 st. of 6 1., and headed " Easter Even. ‘And laid it in his own new tomb.' St. Matt, xxvii. 60." In common use it is commonly abbreviated, one form being that in the American Protestant Episcopal Church Hymnal, 1871, where st. i., ii. and iv., are altered, and the two closing lines of each stanza are omitted. These alterations and omissions have gone far towards utterly spoiling the hymn.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #9718
  • PDF (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer Score (NWC)

Instances

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The Cyber Hymnal #9718

Include 12 pre-1979 instances
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