Light in the eastern sky, Jesus returning!
Light in the western sky, Jesus is near!
Soon shall the nations, His advent discerning,
Hail Him with gladness, or see Him with fear.
Refrain
Lord, by Thy hands that were nail pierced and torn:
Lord by the crown that they wove of the thorns:
Lord, by Thy passion in Gethsemane:
Christ of all tenderness, plead Thou for me!
Bright be our lamps as we watch for the dawning,
Girded our loins, that our strength may not fail;
So as He shines through the mists of the morning,
We may be ready to cry Him, “All hail!”
Refrain
Not as at Nazareth—lowly they found Him;
He as the Judge cometh back from the sky;
Borne on the whirlwind, with angels around Him,
Veiling their face from His glory so nigh.
Refrain
Judge of the earth, who in mercy unfailing
Offered Thyself as atonement for sin,
In that great day, by Thy love all prevailing,
Grant us the rest of Thy heaven to win!- Daniel B. Towner
This post was created for: http://skyley.blogspot.com/2008/06/da-rulez.html
Lillie-Put 
That was beautiful, Pastor J thank you for sharing!
Wonderful. I’m not familiar with that hymn. I’ve been looking for quite some time, for a song or a hymn to use as the soundtrack for our Toward Daylight book trailer–this very well could be it. I doubt it’s merely coincidental that we found you. Do you know of a recording for this hymn, or can you tell me in which hymnal I can find it? I’d appreciate your help. Have a blessed weekend.
Ken R.
Hi Ken, I found the hymn on line at cyberhymnal.org. There doesn’t seem to be music attached to it. I have searched my hymnals and data bases but have found nothing. I am connected to a musician who collects old hymns and I have contacted him and will let you know what I find. With a writer as prolific and popular as Towner it would seem there should be a something out there. This definitely one of his lesser known hymns. I will let you know what I find.
In other news I purchased Gilead and am now in the middle of it. Hoping it will get me back to the thread of the Celebrant!
Thank you. This might turn into a research project. It has to be there somewhere, if you found it online, attributed to him. I’ll put my wife on it, too. She’s excellent at research, and knows some librarians who can dig up nearly anything.
Enjoy your reading! There’s a lot in there to ponder.
There sure is but I am enjoying it immensely. I am still searching for the music by the by.
Spent some time on the search. There’s not anything on the internet that we can find. If we’re going to pursue it, we’ll have to go into academic research mode, which is incredibly time consuming.
It might be easier to write our own song. If only we were songwriters…
Or maybe we can come up with our own melody to the words. I know a composer who frequently did that…
I will keep looking. We have a few writers in C.cada if you are interested I can approach them and you can open a conversation if they are willing.
I think I’ll be getting serious about putting the trailer together sometime around the first of April. If I haven’t come up with the right music by then, I’ll certainly be asking you to talk to the songwriters in your group.
That would be wonderful. I shall await your “call” until then I shall continue to search. My thoughts are that if it has fallen this far into the unknown there may be reasons (like perhaps it was not so pretty to begin with).
The lyrics are very nice. Perhaps it’s time for a new melody?
One of my artists found the music. I can send it as an attachment to your e-mail if you would like. Do you have access to a pianist who could play it for you? If so have it played and then you can decide if you would like a rewrite.
That’s wonderful! My wife reads music and plays piano. Thank you so much!
rosehallmedia@gmail.com