“Christ, the Lord, is risen today,”
Sons of men and angels say,
Raise your joys and triumphs high,
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply.

These lines open Charles Wesley’s Easter hymn “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today,” written in the early Methodist revival in 18th-century England. Wesley (1707–1788), a prolific hymn writer and co-founder of Methodism alongside his brother John, composed hymns to teach doctrine and stir heartfelt devotion among ordinary worshipers. The hymn celebrates the Resurrection as the central event of Christian faith and was intended for congregational singing in Easter worship. It became one of the most widely used English-language Easter hymns, often paired in later tradition with “Alleluia” refrains and set to familiar tunes in hymnals across denominations.

The stanza is a summons to universal praise: not only “sons of men” but “angels” proclaim the Resurrection, and even “heavens” and “earth” are imagined as responding antiphonally. Wesley frames Easter joy as public and cosmic—an event that overturns death and therefore warrants “triumphs high,” not private gratitude alone. The call-and-response imagery (“Sing… and earth reply”) emphasizes communal worship and the unity of creation in celebrating Christ’s victory. The hymn’s plain, imperative diction makes theology singable: the Resurrection is announced, and the proper human response is exuberant, collective praise.

1) “Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia” (common hymnal version adding “Alleluia”).
2) “Christ the Lord is risen today; Sons of men and angels say; Raise your joys and triumphs high; Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply; Alleluia!” (punctuation and refrain variant).
3) “Christ the Lord is risen today” is sometimes printed as “Christ, the Lord, is risen today” (comma variant).