Dayspring

Representative Text

1.
Christian, see the orient morning
Breaks along the heathen sky;
Lo! the expected day is dawning,
Glorious dayspring from on high

2.
Heathens at the sight are singing,
Morning wakes their tuneful lays;
Precious offerings they are bringing,
Firstfruits of more perfect days.

3.
Zion's sun, salvation beaming,
Gilding now the radiant hills,
Rise and shine till brighter gleaming,
All the world thy glory fills.

4.
Then the valleys and the mountains,
Breaking forth, in joy shall sing;
Then the living crystal fountain
From the thirsty ground shall spring.

5.
While the wilderness rejoices,
Roses shall the desert cheer;
Then the dumb shall tune their voices,
Blind shall see, the deaf shall hear.

6.
Lord of every tribe and nation,
Spread thy truth from pole to pole;
Spread the light of thy salvation
Till it shines on every soul.

Hallelujah! Hail the dayspring from on high!



Source: The Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion (New ed. thoroughly rev. and much enl.) #315

Author: Thomas Cleland

(no biographical information available about Thomas Cleland.) Go to person page >

Author: Leland

Leland, John, an American Baptist minister, was born at Grafton, Massachusetts, on May 15th, 1754, and began to preach at the age of 20. From 1776 to 1790 he was in Virginia, and thereafter in Massachusetts, mostly at Cheshire. He died Jan. 14, 1841. His Sermons, Addresses, Essays and Autobiography were published by his niece, Miss L. F. Greene, at Lanesboro, Massachusetts, in 1845. His influence seems to have been equalled by his peculiarities. We hear of his "restless activity and roving disposition"; his "mad devotion to politics," wherein he had much local and temporary weight; his "ready wit and endless eccentricities;" as also of his high character. Of the hymns which have been ascribed to him, some on doubtful authority, the followin… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Christian, see the orient morning
Title: Dayspring
Author: Thomas Cleland
Author: Leland
Meter: 8s.7s.
Source: Church Poetry, 1823
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Christian! See! the orient morning. [Missions.] This hymn is given in the American Plymouth Collection, 1855, as from "Leland's Hymns." It is also in the Reformed Dutch Hymns of the Church, N. Y., 1869.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Tune

DAYSPRING (12314)


ORIENT MORNING (Vinton)


REGENT SQUARE (Smart)

Henry T. Smart (PHH 233) composed REGENT SQUARE for the Horatius Bonar (PHH 260) doxology "Glory be to God the Father." The tune was first published in the English Presbyterian Church's Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship (1867), of which Smart was music editor. Because the text editor of that hymna…

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Timeline

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