A Pentecostal Easter Hymn


Happy Easter! To celebrate this Easter Monday I've translated an early Pentecostal Resurrection hymn from the original Welsh to English. D.P. Williams, one of the most important leaders in the early days of the Apostolic Church (and British Pentecostalism more widely), wrote hundreds of hymns which were sung for many years by Welsh-speaking Pentecostal churches. Unfortunately, because there aren't many (or perhaps now any??) Welsh-speaking Pentecostal assemblies today, these treasures of early Pentecostal praise have largely been forgotten. So, here's my attempt to recover one of them through a meagre English translation.

1. Christ Jesus came from Heaven,
Stooped even to the grave;
God the Son clothed in our flesh
A multitude to save.
Hosanna! Hallelujah!
Praise to the Lamb of Grace;
Who died for us on Calv’ry
And suffered in our place.

2. Christ Jesus rose triumphant
The third day from the grave.
He death, by death, defeated
From death’s cold chains to save;
Ascended into Heaven,
He ever intercedes,
At God’s right hand enthronèd,
His precious blood He pleads.

3. He will be seen returning
On Heaven’s clouds He’ll come,
And saints and angels with Him,
The multitude He won;
And peace and perfect justice,
As water of the sea,
With knowledge of Jehovah
The whole earth filled will be.

4. And then the grace of Heaven
Will fill to full the earth;
And peace will flow like rivers,
Of war there’ll be a dearth.*
And love will reign victorious,
In Heaven and earth below,
And every tongue praise Jesus,
While endless ages flow.

*This is my very poor attempt to find a rhyming metrical way of rendering 'A rhwd ar fin pob cledd' - literally, 'And rust on the edge of every sword.'

If anyone speaks Welsh and wants to find the original, it's hymn number 186, 'Daeth Iesu Grist o'r Nefoedd', in Molwch Dduw (the Welsh hymnbook of the Apostolic Church) and the original tune to which it was set was 'Angel's Song', which is number 280 in the Redemption Hymnal.