So rest, my Rest

So rest, my Rest. Salomo Franck* (1659-1725), translated by Richard Massie* (1800-1887).  The German text of this hymn was in Franck’s Geistliche Poesie (Weimar, 1685). Massie’s translation was included in the 1857 edition of William Mercer*’s Church Psalter and Hymn Book (JJ, p. 387-8). It was a valuable hymn for Easter Eve, a profound meditation on the dead body of Christ on the day before his Resurrection:  So rest, my Rest! Thou ever blest! Thy grave with sinners making: By thy precious death from sin My dead soul awaking.  Here hast thou lain After much pain, Life of my life, reposing: Round thee now a rock-hewn grave, Rock of Ages, closing.  Breath of all breath! I know, from death...