Why Do We Mourn Departing Friends Lyrics Isaac Watts, 1707

Verse 1. Why do we mourn departing friends,
Or shake at death’s alarms?
’Tis but the voice that Jesus sends,
To call them to his arms.

Verse 2. Are we not tending upward, too,
As fast as time can move?
Nor would we wish the hours more slow,
To keep us from our love.

Verse 3. Why should we tremble to convey
Their bodies to the tomb?
There the dear flesh of Jesus lay,
And scattered all the gloom.

Verse 4. The graves of all the saints be blessed,
And softened every bed;
Where should the dying members rest,
But with the dying Head?

Verse 5. Thence he arose, ascending high,
And showed our feet the way;
Up to the Lord we, too, shall fly
At the great rising-day.

Verse 6. Then let the last loud trumpet sound,
And bid our kindred rise;
Awake! ye nations under ground;
Ye saints! ascend the skies.