Song of the Easter Lilies

The Lilies of Easter awake and sing,
They rise from the dust where in sleep they dwell
Through the long drear winter of death and night
And out of the dark earth cold and white
Rise pure and white as an angel's wing
And the old, sweet story of Easter tell.

 

Tender and sweet is the song they chant,
The Lilies' message of hope and trust,
To every immortal inhabitant
Of the world whose inhabitants dwell in dust.

 

From cycle to cycle, from age to age
Through war, through pestilence, sin and wrong,
From the song, the anthem, the pictured page
The Easter lilies have blossomed on.

 

Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust,
Sweet anthem of prophecy, hope and trust,
It trembles and vibrates from tomb to tomb
And the Easter Lilies awake and bloom.

 

Open the heart's close-bolted door
And let the song of the Lilies in,
Song of prophecy, angel's song,
Waking Life's beauty from old Earth's wrong.

 

Treasures corrupted by moth and rust,
Lives down-trodden by sin and wrong,
Rise and join in the Easter song,
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust!

 

Awake and sing, for the Christ who said
"Consider the Lilies," speaks today (not a buried Christ but a risen King)
And grand shall the final anthem swell
When all who in dust and darkness dwell, like the Lilies of Easter awake and sing.