Scripture Verse

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Exodus 20:10

Introduction

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Christopher Wordsworth
(1807–1885)

Words: Chris­to­pher Words­worth, The Ho­ly Year (Lon­don: Riv­ing­tons, 1862), num­ber 1, alt.

Music: Men­de­bras Lo­well Ma­son, 1839 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

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Lowell Mason (1792–1872)

Lyrics

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,
Sing Ho­ly, ho­ly, ho­ly,
To God, the great Tri­une.

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.

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.

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 re­flect­ion,
Thou art, a day of love,
A day of re­sur­rect­ion
From earth to things above.

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.

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.