O Thou in Whom Thy saints repose

Representative Text

1 O Thou in Whom Thy saints repose,
When life's brief conflict finds its close;
Behold us met before Thy face
To hallow this their resting-place:
Safe are the souls whom Thou dost keep;
And safely here their dust shall sleep.

2 Thou knowest, Lord,-- for Thou hast wept
Beside the tomb where Lazarus slept,--
What tears must flow, what hearts must bleed
When here we sow the precious seed:
Thou still rememberest, on Thy throne,
Thy garden grave and sealèd stone.

3 Bid then Thy hosts encamp around
This chosen spot of holy ground:
Here let calm hope with memory dwell,
And faith of heavenly comfort tell:
No thought of ill, no footstep rude
Profane the sacred solitude.

4 Here when Thy mourners shall repair
In lonely grief and trembling prayer,
Lift Thou sad hearts and streaming eyes
To those fair glades of Paradise,
Where safe within the guarded gate
Thy ransomed souls in patience wait.

5 And when the valley, thick with corn,
Shall laugh to see thy harvest-morn,
Here may the angel-reapers find
Full many a sheaf for Thee to bind,
And in Thy golden garner store,
Our fruit of tears for evermore.

Amen.

The Hymnal: revised and enlarged as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892

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Author: John Ellerton

John Ellerton (b. London, England, 1826; d. Torquay, Devonshire, England, 1893) Educated at King William's College on the Isle of Man and at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, he was ordained in the Church of England in 1851. He served six parishes, spending the longest time in Crewe Green (1860-1872), a church of steelworkers and farmers. Ellerton wrote and translated about eighty hymns, many of which are still sung today. He helped to compile Church Hymns and wrote its handbook, Notes and Illustrations to Church Hymns (1882). Some of his other hymn texts were published in The London Mission Hymn Book (1884). Bert Polman… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	O Thou in Whom Thy saints repose
Author:	John Ellerton (1870)
Meter:	8.8.8.8.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Tune

SAINTS OF GOD (Sullivan)

[Han lefver! o min ande, känn]

CREDO (Stainer)

John Stainer (b. Southwark, London, England, 1840; d. Verona, Italy, 1901) composed CREDO for the text "We Saw Thee Not When Thou Didst Come"; the tune was published in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1875). CREDO, like some other Victorian tunes, depends as much on its harmonization as on its melody for…

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