Awake our drowsy souls

Representative Text

1 Awake, our drowsy souls,
Shake off each slothful band,
The wonders of this day
Our noblest songs demand.
Auspicious morn! thy blissful rays,
Bright seraphs hail in songs of praise.

2 At thy approaching dawn,
Reluctant death resigned
The glorious prince of life,
Her dark domains confined.
The angelic host around Him bends,
And, 'midst their shouts, the God ascends.

3 All hail, triumphant Lord,
Heaven with hosannas rings;
While earth, in humbler strains,
Thy praise responsive sings:
Worthy art thou, who once wast slain,
Through endless years to live and reign.

4 Gird on, great god, thy sword,
Ascend thy conquering car,
While justice, truth, and love
Maintain the glorious war.
Victorious thou, thy foes shalt tread,
And sin and hell in triumph lead.

5 Make bare thy potent arm,
And wing the unerring dart,
With salutary pangs,
To each rebellious heart.
Then dying souls for life shall sue,
Numerous as drops of morning dew.

John Ash and Caleb Evans, A Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship. Bristol, England, 1769, Hymn 307.

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Author: Elizabeth Scott

Scott, Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Scott, Independent Minister at Norwich, and sister of Thomas Scott, noted below, was born at Norwich about 1708. In 1751 she was married to Elisha Williams, who had been from 1726 to 1739 Rector of Yale College, U.S.A., and with him she proceeded to Connecticut. On the death of Mr. Williams she was married to the Hon. William Smith, of New York, who also predeceased her. She died at Wethersfield, Connecticut, June 13th, 1776. In connection with Miss Scott's hymns we are acquainted directly and indirectly with four manuscripts, each of which is interesting in itself. These are as follows:— i. The first manuscript is in the library of Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut. Mr. Franklin Bowditch… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Awake our drowsy souls
Author:	Elizabeth Scott (1769)
Meter:	6.6.6.6.8.8
Source:	A Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship by John Ash and Caleb Evans (Bristol, England: 1769); John Rippon, A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors, 1787
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Awake, our drowsy souls. Elizabeth Scott. [Sunday.] First published in the Baptist Collection of Ash and Evans, Bristol, 1769, No. 307, in 5 stanzas of 6 lines, and appointed as “A hymn for Lord's Day Morning." From that collection it passed into several later hymnals, including Rippon, Dobell, and others; but it is almost entirely unknown to modern hymnbooks except in America having been superseded by "Awake, ye saints, awake, And hail," &c, a recast of the same in 4 stanzas (stanza iii. being the original with "and " for "while," line 3) made by T. Cotterill, and given in the first ed. of his Selection, 1810. This form of the hymn is in somewhat extensive use both in Great Britain and America, and is usually ascribed correctly to "Elizabeth Scott and Thomas Cotterill." In many of the modern American hymnals, stanza iv. is omitted; but the English generally give the text from Cotterill as in Baptist Psalms and Hymns, 1858, in this case the only alteration is "blest" for "bless'd" in stanza i., 1. 5. Another form of the hymn is:— "Servants of God, awake." It consists of stanzas i.—iii. of Cotterill's recast, slightly altered. It appeared in the Harrow School Hymn Book, 1855, and from thence passed into Church Hymns , 1871, No. 39. In the Hymn Book of the Evangelical Assoc., Cleveland, Ohio, 1881, No. 604, stanzas i., ii. are given as "Children of God, awake"; and in the Marlborough College Hymns, 1869, stanzas i.—iii. as "Come, sons of God, awake." [Willliam T. Brooke]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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