"Oh, How Blest Are Ye Whose Toils are Ended"
                           by Simon Dach, 1605-1659
                 Translated by Henry W. Longfellow, 1807-1892
                                  Text From:
                       THE HANDBOOK TO THE LUTHERAN HYMNAL
            (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1942) p.419-420



	1. Oh, how blest are ye whose toils are ended,
	Who through death have unto God ascended!
	Ye have arisen
	From the cares which keep us still in prison.
	
	2. We are still as in a dungeon living,
	Still oppressed with sorrow and misgiving;
	Our undertackings
	Are but toils and troubles and heart-breakings.
	
	3. Ye meanwhile are in your chambers sleeping,
	Quiet, and set free from all our weeping;
	No cross or sadness
	There can hinder your untroubled gladness.
	
	4. Christ has wiped away your tears forever;
	Ye have that for which we still endeavor;
	To you are chanted
	Songs that ne'er to mortal ears were granted.
	
	5. Ah, who would, then, not depart with gladness
	To inherit heaven for earthly sadness?
	Who here would languish
	Longer in bewailing and in anguish?
	
	6. Come, 0 Christ, and loose the chains that bind us:
	Lead us forth and cast this world behind us.
	With Thee, the Anointed,
	Finds the soul its joy and rest appointed.

        

        Notes from _The Lutheran Hymnal_
        Hymn #589 
        Text: Rev. 14:13
        Author: Simon Dach, 1635
        Translated by: Henry W. Longfellow, 1845, alt.
        Titled: "O wie selig seid ihr doch, ihr Frommen"
        1st Published in: J. Georg Stoezel's _Choral-Buch"
        Town: Stuttgart, 1744