"The Day of Resurrection"

A couple weeks ago, I was just flipping through my hymnal and noticed something about "The Day of Resurrection" (sung to the tune "Lancashire").  The fifth line of the first verse is "From death to life eternal," sung to this musical phrase:

"Eternal" is sung with a melisma (four syllables rather than just three), which musically gives a sense of that long period of time.  One of the notes (the dotted quarter note) has a longer value than the others in this phrase, which seems to add to this musical depiction.