83

M

Hailing the Sabbath's return. L. M.

Y opening eyes with rapture see
The dawn of this returning day;
My thoughts, O God, ascend to thee,
While thus my early vows I pay.

2 I yield my heart to thee alone,
Nor would receive another guest:
Eternal King, erect thy throne,
And reign sole monarch in my breast.

3 O bid this trifling world retire,
And drive each carnal thought away;
Nor let me feel one vain desire,

One sinful thought, through all the day.

4 Then, to thy courts when I repair,
My soul shall rise on joyful wing;
The wonders of thy love declare,
And join the strains which angels sing.
JAMES HUTTON. (?)

I have not verified the reputed authorship of this hymn. It is found in a Boston Collection, edited by Rev. John Codman, A.M., 1813, where it has six stanzas. These are the last four, slightly altered.

Mr. James Hutton (1715-1795) was an English Moravian, and was the author of a number of hymns. This is not found in any of his works. In the collection by Codman it is ascribed to "Evan. Mag."

84

FA

AR from my thoughts, vain world, be
gone!

Let my religious hours alone:
Fain would mine eyes my Saviour see;
I wait a visit, Lord, from thee.

2 O warm my heart with holy fire,
And kindle there a pure desire:
Come, sacred Spirit, from above,
And fill my soul with heavenly love.

3 Blest Saviour, what delicious fare!
How sweet thine entertainments are!
Never did angels taste above
Redeeming grace and dying love.

4 Hail, great Immanuel, all divine!
In thee thy Father's glories shine;
Thy glorious name shall be adored,
And every tongue confess thee Lord.

ISAAC WATTS.

From Hymns and Spiritual Songs, book ii, 1707.

86 Day of light, rest, peace, prayer. S. M.

THIS

HIS is the day of light:
Let there be light to-day;
O Day-spring, rise upon our night,
And chase its gloom away.

2 This is the day of rest:

Our failing strength renew;
On weary brain and troubled breast
Shed thou thy freshening dew.

3 This is the day of peace:
Thy peace our spirits fill;

Bid thou the blasts of discord cease,
The waves of strife be still.

4 This is the day of prayer:

Let earth to heaven draw near;
Lift up our hearts to seek thee there;
Come down to meet us here.

5 This is the first of days:

Send forth thy quickening breath, And wake dead souls to love and praise, O Vanquisher of death!

JOIN ELLERTON.

A fine new hymn. It was written in 1868, and first appeared in the Selection of Hymns for use in Chester Cathedral. It has not been altered.

The Rev. John Ellerton is an English clergyman, born in 1826. He is at this date (1883) Rector of Barnes, Surrey, Eng.

87 The eternal Sabbath.

H

S. M.

AIL to the Sabbath day!
The day divinely given,
When men to God their homage pay,
And earth draws near to heaven.

2 Lord, in this sacred hour,

Within thy courts we bend, And bless thy love, and own thy power, Our Father and our Friend.

3 But thou art not alone

In courts by mortals trod;
Nor only is the day thine own
When man draws near to God:

4 Thy temple is the arch
Of yon unmeasured sky;
Thy Sabbath, the stupendous march
Of vast eternity.

5 Lord, may that holier day
Dawn on thy servants' sight;
And purer worship may we pay
In heaven's unclouded light.

STEPHEN G. BULFINCH, ALT.

The author's title of this grand hymn is: The Sabbath Day.

It was published in Contemplations of the Saviour, 1832; in Poems by S. G. Bulfinch, 1834; and in Lays of the Gospel, 1845. In this last book the author added three stanzas, which are not given in this hymn. Some changes appear in the last three stanzas. In Lays of the Gospel, the closing line of the third stanza is:

"When crowds adore their God."

The last line of the fourth stanza is: "Of grand eternity."

The closing couplet of the hymn is:

"And grant us in thy courts to pray, Of pure, unclouded light."

The Rev. Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch, D.D., was born in Boston in 1809. He was graduated at Columbia College, Washington, in 1827, and at Cambridge Divinity School in 1830. He was ordained in 1831, and was pastor of several Unitarian churches. He died suddenly in 1870.

S

7,6 1.

88 Safely through another week.
MAFELY through another week,
God has brought us on our way;
Let us now a blessing seek,
Waiting in his courts to-day:
Day of all the week the best,
Emblem of eternal rest.

2 While we pray for pardoning grace, Through the dear Redeemer's name, Show thy reconciléd face,

Take away our sin and shame;
From our worldly cares set free,
May we rest this day in thee.

3 Here we come thy name to praise;
May we feel thy presence near:
May thy glory meet our eyes,
While we in thy house appear:
Here afford us, Lord, a taste
Of our everlasting feast.

4 May thy gospel's joyful sound
Conquer sinners, comfort saints;
Make the fruits of grace abound,
Bring relief for all complaints:
Thus may all our Sabbaths prove,
Till we join the Church above.

JOHN NEWTON, ALT.

From Olney Hymns, 1779.

The writer's title was: Saturday Evening. Several lines have been changed to adapt it to Sunday singing.

From Songs of Zion, 1822.

This is the author's version of Psalm exxii:

"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good."

Verses two, six, and seven are omitted.
The author wrote in verse three, line three:
"The Lord from Heaven be kind to them."

For biographical sketch of Montgomery, see No. 5.

90

D

Immortality and light.

AY of God, thou blessed day,
At thy dawn the grave gave way

To the power of Him within,
Who had, sinless, bled for sin.

2 Thine the radiance to illume
First, for man, the dismal tomb,
When its bars their weakness owned,
There revealing death dethroned.

3 Then the Sun of righteousness
Rose, a darkened world to bless,
Bringing up from mortal night
Immortality and light.

4 Day of glory, day of power,
Sacred be thine every hour;
Emblem, earnest, of the rest
That remaineth for the blest.

HANNAH F. GOULD.

6.

A valuable hymn, cut out of a poem of nine stanzas, entitled The Sabbath. It is composed of verses four, five, six, and seven, verbatim, except one word. The fourth stanza, first of the hymn, begins:

"Choice of God," etc.

From the author's Poems, vol. iii. Boston, 1841. Vol. i was copyrighted in 1832, and vol. ii in 1835. Most of Miss Gould's poems have already been forgotten; but this Sabbath hymn will preserve her memory for a long time to come.

Miss Hannah Flagg Gould was born in Lancaster, Mass., in 1789. In her youth her father removed to Newburyport, Mass., where she kept his house, and was not only a devoted daughter, er, but constant companion up to the hour of his death. Miss Gould died September 5, 1865, in Newburyport, Mass.

a

2 Night her solemn mantel spreads
O'er the earth as daylight fades;
All things tell of calm repose,
At the holy Sabbath's close.

3 Peace is on the world abroad;
'Tis the holy peace of God,
Symbol of the peace within
When the spirit rests from sin.

4 Still the Spirit lingers near,
Where the evening worshiper
Seeks communion with the skies,
Pressing onward to the prize.

5 Saviour, may our Sabbaths be
Days of joy and peace in thee,
Till in heaven our souls repose,
Where the Sabbath ne'er shail close

SAMUEL F. SMITH.

Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;

Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadow's flee;

In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me!

HENRY F. LYTE.

See No. 27. From The Remains of the Late Rev. Henry Francis Lyte, A.Μ., 1850. The basis of this prayer-song is Luke xxiv, 29:

"Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent."

The author was in delicate health and not expecting to live; yet anxious to be of use and to be remembered. In a poem, entitled Declining Days, he offered this petition:

"O Thou, whose touch can lend

Life to the dead, Thy quickening grace supply; And grant me, swan-like, my last breath to spend In song that may not die."

That prayer was answered. In the full of 1847, as he was about to take a journey in search of health, he preached a good-bye discourse to his people, and administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The same night he presented to a friend this hymn, and the music he had adapted to it. It proved to be, indeed, his "swan-song," and has become a general favorite. Verses three, four, and five of the original are omitted; those given are unaltered.

way;

2 Grant us thy peace upon our homeward With thee began, with thee shall end the day; Guard thou the lips from sin, the hearts from shame,

That in this house have called upon thy name.

3 Grant us thy peace, Lord, through the coming night, Turn thou for us its darkness into light; From harm and danger keep thy children free,

For dark and light are both alike to thee. 4 Grant us thy peace throughout our earthly life, Our balm in sorrow, and our stay in strife; Then, when thy voice shall bid our conflict

3 'Tis he supports my mortal frame,
My tongue shall speak his praise;
My sins might rouse his wrath to flame,
But yet his wrath delays.

4 Great God, let all my hours be thine,
Whilst I enjoy the light;
Then shall my sun in smiles decline,
And bring a peaceful night.

ISAAC WATTS.

A Morning Song. From Hymns and Spiritual Songs, book ii, 1707. A few verbal changes have been made. In the first stanza Watts wrote:

"To Him that rolls the skies."

Only two letters are altered, yet the sense is greatly modified. In the last stanza the author wrote: "Dear God," and "pleasant night." Two stanzas, the fourth and fifth of the original, are left out:

"On a poor worm thy power might tread,
And I could ne'er withstand,
Thy justice might have crushed me dead,
But mercy held thine hand.

"A thousand wretched souls are fled,
Since the last setting sun,
And yet thou length'nest out my thread,
And yet my moments run."

96 Morning supplications.

A

С. М.

WAKE, my soul, to meet the day; Unfold thy drowsy eyes, And burst the heavy chain that binds Thine active faculties.

2 God's guardian shield was round me spread

In my defenseless sleep:
Let him have all my waking hours
Who doth my slumbers keep.

3 Pardon, O God, my former sloth,
And arm my soul with grace,
As, rising, now I seal my vows
To prosecute thy ways.

4 Bright Sun of righteousness, arise;
Thy radiant beams display;
And guide my dark, bewildered soul
To everlasting day.

PHILIP DODDRIDGE.

Title: A Morniny Hymn to be used at Awakening and Rising. It is said that Dr. Doddridge rose every morning at five o'clock, and sung this hymn as an act of devotion.