It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Romans 13:11
Words: Philip Doddridge (1702–1751). Published posthumously in Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures, by Job Orton (Shropshire, England: Joshua Eddowes & John Cotton, 1755), number 264: The near approach of salvation, an engagement to diligence and love.
Music: Zerah Lowell Mason, 1837 (🔊 pdf nwc).
Alternate Tunes:
Awake, ye saints, and raise your eyes,
And raise your voices high;
Away, and praise that sovereign Love,
That shows salvation nigh.
On all the wings of time it flies;
Each moment brings it near;
Then welcome each declining day!
Welcome each closing year!
Not many years their round shall run,
Nor many mornings rise,
Ere all its glories stand revealed
To our admiring eyes.
Ye wheels of nature, speed your course;
Ye mortal powers, decay;
Fast as ye bring the night of death,
Ye bring eternal day.