Scripture Verse

Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. Psalm 30:4

Introduction

portrait
Jonathan E. Spilman (1812–1896)

Words: From Thou Soft Flow­ing Ked­ron, by Ma­ria de Fleu­ry, in her Di­vine Po­ems and Es­says, 1791. This adap­ta­tion has been cred­it­ed to Jo­na­than E. Spil­man, some time af­ter he be­came a min­is­ter, around 1858.

Music: Af­ton (Spil­man) Jo­na­than E. Spil­man, 1837 (🔊 pdf nwc). Writ­ten while he was at­tend­ing Tran­syl­van­ia Law School in Lex­ing­ton, Ken­tuc­ky.

Lyrics

Thou sweet smil­ing Ked­ron, by the sil­ver stream,
Our Sav­ior would lin­ger in moon­light’s soft beam,
And by thy bright wa­ters, till mid­night would stay,
And lose in thy mur­murs the toils of the day.

Refrain

Come saints and ad­ore Him, come bow at His feet,
O give Him the glo­ry and praise that is meet,
Let joy­ful ho­san­nas un­ceas­ing arise,
And join the full cho­rus that glad­dens the skies.

How damp were the va­pors that fell on His head,
How hard was His pil­low, how hum­ble His bed,
The an­gels be­hold­ing, am­azed at the sight,
Attended their mas­ter with so­lemn de­light.

Refrain

O gar­den of ol­ives, thou dear hon­ored spot,
The fame of thy won­ders shall ne’er be forgot,
The theme most trans­port­ing to se­raphs above,
The tri­umph of sor­row, the tri­umph of love.

Refrain

De Fleury’s orig­in­al ver­sion:

Thou soft flow­ing Ked­ron, by thy sil­ver stream
Our Sav­ior at midnight, when Cyn­thia’s pale beam
Shone bright on thy wa­ters, would fre­quent­ly stray,
And lose in thy mur­murs, the toils of the day.

How damp were the va­pours that fell on his head,
How hard was his pil­low, how hum­ble his bed;
The an­gels as­ton­ished, grew sad at the sight,
And fol­lowed their Mas­ter with so­lemn de­light.

O gar­den of Oliv­et, dear hon­oured spot!
Thy name and thy won­ders shall ne’er be for­got;
The theme most trans­port­ing to se­raphs above,
The tri­umph of Sorrow! the tri­umph of Love!

’Twas here he en­gaged with the Li­on of hell,
Beneath his strong arm all our ene­mies fell:
’Twas here he en­count­ered with in­fi­nite Wrath,
And con­quered by Love that was strong­er than Death.

Come saints, and ad­ore him, come bow at his feet;
O give him the glo­ry and praise that is meet:
Let joy­ful ho­san­nahs un­ceas­ing arise,
And join the grand cho­rus that glad­dens the skies.