Not Lost, But Gone Before

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Say, why should friendship grieve for those

Author: Benjamin Clark
Tune: [Say, why should friendship grieve for those]
Published in 20 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Say, why should friendship grieve for those
Who safe arrive on Canaan's shores?
Released from all their hurtful foes,
They are not lost, but gone before.

2 How many painful days on earth
Their fainting spirits numbered o'er!
Now they enjoy a heav'nly birth;
They are not lost, but gone before.

3 Dear is the spot where Christians sleep,
And sweet the strain which angels pour;
O why should we in anguish weep?
They are not lost, but gone before.

4 On Jordan's bank whene'er we come,
And hear the swelling waters roar,
Jesus, convey us safely home,
To friends not lost, but gone before.

Source: The Christian Hymnary. Bks. 1-4 #641

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Author: Benjamin Clark

Clark, Benjamin, published Sacred Emblems with Mixed Pieces, London, 1828. Four pieces as in this work were given in John Rees's Collection, 1823, and one in his Appendix, 1826. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) Go to person page >

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First Line:	Say, why should friendship grieve for those
Title:	Not Lost, But Gone Before
Author:	Benjamin Clark
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

2 Timothy 1:10
(hymns)

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Notes

Say, why should friendship grieve for those? [Death and Burial]. This hymn appeared in the Evangelical Magazine in 1820, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, headed "On seeing a mourning ring inscribed with the words ‘Not lost, but gone before,' "and is signed "B. C," the signature, it is said, of Benjamin Clark. In the enlarged edition of Psalms & Hymns, 1864, by Morrell and How it was given in a rewritten form in 4 stanzas of 4 lines as "Why mourn the dead with hopeless tears?" This in a slightly different form was in Kennedy, 1863. The 1820 text is in P. Maurice's Choral Hymn Book, 1861.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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