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The Resurrection and the Life

I

“I am,” saith Christ, “your glorious head,”
(May we attention give,)
“The resurrection of the dead,
The life of all that live.

II

“By faith in me the soul receives
New life, though dead before;
And he that in my name believes,
Shall live to die no more.

III

“The sinner, sleeping in his grave,
Shall at my voice awake;
And when I once begin to save,
My work I ne’er forsake.”

IV

Fulfill thy promise, gracious Lord,
On us assembled here;
Put forth thy Spirit with the word,
And cause the dead to hear.

V

Preserve the power of faith alive
In those who love thy name;
For sin and Satan daily strive
To quench the sacred flame.

VI

Thy power and mercy first prevail’d
From death to set us free;
And often since our life had fail’d,
If not renew’d by thee.

VII

To thee we look, to thee we bow,
To thee for help we call;
Our life and resurrection thou,
Our hope, our joy, our all.

Where this text comes from

First published in Olney Hymns (1779). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2] [3]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-15.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns, book-1.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L28.

Cite this poem

John Newton (1725–1807). “The Resurrection and the Life.” First published in Olney Hymns (1779). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-newton/the-resurrection-and-the-life/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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