Take comfort, Christians, when your friends

1 Take comfort, Christians, when your friends
in Jesus fall asleep;
their better being never ends;
why then dejected weep?
2 Why inconsolable, as those
to whom no hope is giv’n?
Death is the messenger of peace,
and calls the soul to heav’n.

3 As Jesus dy'd, and rose again
victorious from the dead;
so his disciples rise, and reign
with their triumphant Head.
4 The time draws nigh, when from the clouds
Christ shall with shouts descend,
and the last trumpet’s awful voice
the heavens and earth shall rend.

5 Then they who live shall changed be,
and they who sleep shall wake;
the graves shall yield their ancient charge,
and earth’s foundations shake.
6 The saints of God, from death set free,
with joy shall mount on high;
the heav’nly hosts with praises loud
shall meet them in the sky,

7 Together to their Father’s house
with joyful hearts they go;
and dwell for ever with the Lord,
beyond the reach of woe.
8 A few short years of evil past,
we reach the happy shore,
where death-divided friends at last
shall meet, to part no more.

Source: The Irish Presbyterian Hymnbook #R53a