Lift Up, Ye Saints, Your Joyful Heads

For Advent

Words: “Erscheinen wird das lieblich Theil”

Author: Johann Rist (1607-1667)

Translation by Frances Elizabeth Cox, 1864

Source: Frances Elizabeth Cox, Hymns from the German (London: Rivingtons, 1864), p. 33.

1. Lift up, ye saints, your joyful heads,
For your redemption now draws nearer;
There, where a better Joshua leads,
A Righteous Day will soon dawn clearer,
When all who follow now His banners,
Led on by His victorious Hand,
Shall win once more a Promised Land,
And sing in triumph loud Hosannas.

2. E'en now the Spring is at the door,
Green leaves shoot forth on fig-branch tender;
Fresh flowers appear on earth's green floor;
New senses God to each will render;
When, past this night preparatory,
Our bodies, all their labour done,
Shall shine for ever like the sun,
In one long Day of summer glory.

3. Meantime let us, each day and night,
Repent of sin with deep compunction;
More wary walk, as in His Sight,
And pray with all the Spirit's Unction:
Then come He in what watch soever,
Go forth we will with ready feet,
The Bridegroom's angel-host to meet,
Who stand before Him, weary never.

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