Away, thou dying saint, away

Thomas Kelly. [Death.] Written by the prolific Irish hymnodist Thomas Kelly, this comforting hymn on the death of a believer was first published in the third edition of his Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture (1809, No. 134). The text consists of 5 stanzas of 4 lines and was retained in all subsequent editions of Kelly's collection published during his lifetime. The composition is founded directly upon Ecclesiastes 12:7 ("Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it"). The unaltered original text was later included in E. T. Prust's Supplementary Hymn Book (1869, No. 241). Kelly's hymn provides an uplifting perspective on death, framing the departure of the soul not as a tragic loss, but as a triumphant release from earthly suffering into the immediate presence of God. While used in funeral and memorial contexts, its inclusion in general hymnals remained somewhat specialized.