University of Virginia Library

756.

[Earth explains the plaintive cry]

The graves were opened; and many, &c. —xxvii. 52, 53.

Earth explains the plaintive cry,
While to its centre shook,
Nature's works inform us why
Thou wast of God forsook:
Now the wondrous cause we trace,
Thy love in its effects we find,
Joyfully Thy death confess
The life of all mankind.
By Thy death the living way
Is open'd to the skies,
Judgments horribly display
The death that never dies!

433

Earth with conscious dread is fill'd!
But lo! the riven rocks proclaim
Penitential grace reveal'd
Through Thy almighty name.
Lo, the open'd graves declare
Thy death destroys our sin,
Doth on twice-dead souls confer
The life of God within:
Lo, the saints by rising show
That all may feel Thy quickening power,
May Thy resurrection know,
And wake to sleep no more.
Rising saints forsake the tomb,
To us, they testify
We our bodies shall resume,
And mount above the sky;
We shall leave the sepulchre
In that Jerusalem above,
Glad before Thy face to' appear,
And sing Thy dying love.