Scripture Verse

Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Joel 3:12

Introduction

Words: Ste­phen Brad­ford, 1842. Brad­ford sub­mit­ted this text to Signs of the Times and Ex­pos­it­or of Pro­phe­cy [Himes], vol­ume 3, num­ber 24, page 189 (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Sep­tem­ber 14, 1842) —

Dear Sirs,—

This is a hymn [by Sam­uel Smith] which has been sung much of late in our re­viv­als which seems to me to be not ve­ry well ad­apt­ed to the views and feel­ings of those who are soon ex­pect­ing to see their Saviour, called The Morn­ing Light Is Break­ing.

I have thought for the sake of the tune to al­ter the sen­ti­ments to suit my­self so that I could sing it in our Se­cond Ad­vent meet­ings.

If you think it best you can pub­lish it in the Signs of the Times with such al­ter­ations as you can make for the bet­ter.

Yours in the hope of the Gos­pel,

Stephen Bradford

The hymn was sub­se­quent­ly pub­lished in The Ad­vent Hymn Book, 1842.

Music: Webb George J. Webb, 1830 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Brad­ford (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
George Webb (1803–1887)

Lyrics

The morn­ing light is break­ing,
The glo­ri­ous day draws near,
When Christ the Judge of na­tions,
In glor­y will ap­pear;
The mid­night cry is sound­ing,
The dawn­ing star’s aris­ing;
Awake, ye sleep­ing virg­ins,
Your God and Sav­ior’s near.

The morn­ing light is breaking,
The King of Glo­ry’s near;
The saints now dead and liv­ing,
Will soon with Him ap­pear;
The mid­night cry is sound­ing,
The fig tree now is bloom­ing;
Awake, ye sleep­ing virg­ins,
Behold, the Bride­groom’s near.

The Bi­ble in its cours­ing,
Has gone from East to West;
The na­tions who were will­ing
Have with His rays been blest;
The mid­night cry is sound­ing,
The judg­ment day ap­proach­ing;
Awake, ye sleep­ing vir­gins,
And take your pro­mised rest.

illustration
Christ the Judge on the Great White Throne