O Lord of Life, Where’er They Be

O Lord of life, where’er they be,
Safe in Thine own eternity,
Our dead are living unto Thee:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

All souls are Thine, and here or there
They rest within Thy sheltering care;
One providence alike they share:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thy Word is true, Thy ways are just;
Above the requiem, “Dust to dust,”
Shall rise our psalm of grateful trust:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

O happy they in God who rest,
No more by fear and doubt oppressed,
Living or dying, they are blest:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Author: Frederick Lucian Hosmer

Year: 1888

This hymn text by Unitarian minister Frederick Lucian Hosmer (1840–1929) first appeared in The Thought of God in Hymns and Poems (1885/1888 editions). It is a well-known Easter and funeral hymn; no other significant attributions exist.