Scripture Verse

All the angels stood round about the throne…and worshipped God. Revelation 7:11

Introduction

portrait
John Ellerton (1826–1893)

Words: John El­ler­ton, writ­ten for a cho­ral fes­ti­val in Nant­wich, Eng­land, and re­writ­ten in 1869 for the Sup­ple­men­tal Hymn and Tune Book. In its first form, it was a cen­to from The Day Is Past and Done, a trans­la­tion by John Blew of Gra­tes, Pe­rac­to Jam Die, by Charles Cof­fin. The re­writ­ten form con­tains no­thing of Blew’s hymn, ex­cept that the line of thought is the same.

Music: Schu­mann, in Can­ti­ca Lau­dis, by Lo­well Ma­son and George J. Webb (New York: Ma­son & Law, 1850) (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

portrait
Lowell Mason (1792–1872)

Lyrics

Our day of praise is done;
The ev­en­ing sha­dows fall;
But pass not from us with the sun,
True Light that light­en­est all.

Around the throne on high,
Where night can ne­ver be,
The white robed harp­ers of the sky
Bring cease­less hymns to Thee.

Too faint our an­thems here;
Too soon of praise we tire;
But O the strains, how full and clear,
Of that eter­nal choir!

Yet, Lord, to Thy dear will
If Thou at­tune the heart,
We in Thine an­gels’ mu­sic still
May bear our low­er part.

’Tis Thine each soul to calm,
Each way­ward thought re­claim,
And make our life a dai­ly psalm
Of glo­ry to Thy name.

A lit­tle while, and then
Shall come the glo­ri­ous end;
And songs of an­gels and of men
In per­fect praise shall blend.