Scripture Verse

Introduction

Origin of the Song

Alwood wrote about the ori­gin of this song in A Rain­bow at Mid­night and a Song with Morn­ing. It ap­peared in the Chris­tian Con­ser­va­tor, Feb­ru­ary 26, 1896:

It was a bal­my night in Au­gust 1879, when re­turn­ing from a de­bate in Spring Hill, Ohio, to my home in Mo­ren­ci, Mi­chi­gan, about 1 o’clock a.m.

I saw a beau­tiful rain­bow north by north­west against a dense black nim­bus cloud. The sky was all per­fect clear ex­cept this dark cloud which cov­ered about for­ty de­grees of the ho­ri­zon and ex­tend­ed about half­way to the ze­nith. The phe­no­me­non was en­tire­ly new to me and ve­ry love­ly.

I had tra­veled ten miles from the scene of men­tal toil, Mor­ph­eus was play­ing his sweet­est lul­la­by. An­oth­er mile of tra­vel, a few mo­ments of time, a fel­low of my size was en­sconced in sweet home and wrapped in sweet sleep. A first class know-no­thing till ro­sy-sweet morn­ing was wide ov­er the fields.

To awake and look abroad and rem­emb­er the night was to be filled with sweet me­lo­dy. A while at the or­gan brought forth a piece of mu­sic now known as The Un­cloud­ed Day. A day and a half was be­stowed on the me­lo­dy and four stan­zas.

In 1987, Will­ie Nel­son sang this song in a Farm Aid con­cert broad­cast all ov­er Am­eri­ca.