Thursday, January 14, 2010

O Day of Rest and Gladness

Hymn lyrics by Christopher Wordsworth,
Music by Lowell Mason
Verse 1
  • O day of rest and gladness,
  • O day of joy and light,
  • O balm of care and sadness,
  • Most beautiful, most bright:
  • On Thee, the high and lowly,
  • Through ages joined in tune,1
  • Sing holy, holy, holy,
  • To the great God Triune.2
Verse 2
  • On Thee, at the creation,
  • The light first had its birth;
  • On Thee, for our salvation,
  • Christ rose from depths of earth;
  • On Thee, our Lord, victorious,
  • The Spirit sent from heav’n,
  • And thus on Thee, most glorious,
  • A triple light was giv’n.
Verse 3
  • Thou art a port, protected
  • From storms that round us rise;
  • A garden, intersected
  • With streams of paradise;
  • Thou art a cooling fountain
  • In life’s dry, dreary sand;
  • From thee, like Pisgah’s mountain,
  • We view our promised land.
Verse 4
  • Thou art a holy ladder,
  • Where angels go and come;
  • Each Sunday finds us gladder,
  • Nearer to heav’n, our home;
  • A day of sweet refection,3
  • Thou art a day of love,
  • A day of resurrection
  • From earth to things above.
Verse 5
  • Today on weary nations
  • The heav’nly manna falls;
  • To holy convocations
  • The silver trumpet calls,
  • Where Gospel light is glowing
  • With pure and radiant beams,
  • And living water flowing,
  • With soul refreshing streams.
Verse 6
  • New graces ever gaining
  • From this our day of rest,
  • We reach the rest remaining
  • To spirits of the blest.
  • To Holy Ghost be praises,
  • To Father, and to Son;
  • The church her voice upraises
  • To Thee, blest Three in One.

1Some hymnals read “Bending before the throne”—probably from Lowell Mason.
2Some hymnals read “To the great Three in One”—See Note 1 above.
3This is not an error. Refection means “Refreshment with food and drink.”

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