Hallelujah, he is risen

The words and music of this song were written by Philip Paul Bliss (1838 – 1876). “Hallelujah, He Is Risen” was written in the spring of 1876. The song “was first sung by him on Easter afternoon, 1876, in the Court House Square of Augusta, Georgia,” where a crowd gathered to hear the evangelist Major Daniel Webster Whittle. Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss (edited by Whittle, New York, NY: A. S. Barnes & Company, 1877, p. 143) states, “None who were there will ever forget the radiant face, or the triumphant, ringing tones with which he sang—He is risen, He is risen, Living Lord and coming King.” The following December, Philip Bliss and his wife lost their lives in the tragic Ashtabula (Ohio) Train Bridge Disaster.

The song apparently first appeared in print in 1876 in Gospel Hymns No. 2, edited by P. P. Bliss and Ira D. Sankey. It is song No. 50 and pairs below it the Bible text “He is not here, for he is risen, as he said.”—Matthew 28:6. This is a nice hymn text on the resurrection that probably should see more use than it does.

1. Hallelujah, He is risen!
Jesus is gone up on high!
Burst the bars of death asunder,
Angels shout and men reply:
He is risen, He is risen,
Living now, no more to die.
 
2. Hallelujah, He is risen!
Our exalted Head to be;
Sends the witness of the Spirit
That our advocate is He:
He is risen, He is risen,
Justified in Him are we.
 
3. Hallelujah, He is risen!
Death for aye hath lost his sting,
Christ, Himself the resurrection,
From the grave His own will bring:
He is risen, He is risen,
Living Lord and coming King.