This Joyful Eastertide

This hymn was written by George Ratcliffe Woodford (1848-1934). The scriptural basis for the text is 1 Corinthians 15, St. Paul's great resurrection chapter.  In it, the apostle refutes any claims that Christ did not rise bodily from the dead. Herein Christians receive comfort, hope, and the assurance of their own bodily resurrection from the dead on the Last Day.  (The original order of the stanzas is 1, 3, 2 [reflected in the King's College Cambridge and Quarantine Choir links below] was altered, most likely to place the sequence of events in chronological order: the death of the believer, the body's rest in the grave, and then the waking of the dead at the Last Day.) The tune VRUECHTEN (Dutch for "fruits") is from Davids Psalmen, Amsterdam, 1684.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tipsbcfuB4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyNYjD91TyI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDjkPwHVJoc   (organ only)

1.

This joyful Eastertide

    Away with sin and sorrow!

My love, the Crucified,

    Has sprung to life this morrow:

Had Christ, who once was slain,

    Not burst His three-day prison,

Our faith had been in vain:

    But now has Christ arisen, arisen, arisen;

    But now has Christ arisen!

2.

Death’s flood has lost its chill

    Since Jesus crossed the river;

Lover of souls, from ill

    My passing soul deliver:

Had Christ, who once was slain,

    Not burst His three-day prison,

Our faith had been in vain:

    But now has Christ arisen, arisen, arisen;

    But now has Christ arisen!

3. 

My flesh in hope shall rest

    And for a season slumber

Till trump from east to west

    Shall wake the dead in number:

Had Christ, who once was slain,

    Not burst His three-day prison,

Our faith had been in vain:

    But now has Christ arisen, arisen, arisen;

    But now has Christ arisen!