Rejoicing at the Return of the Sabbath

Author: James Hutton

James Hutton, son of a clergyman and cousin to Sir Isaac Newton, was born in London, Sept. 3, 1715, and followed for some years the trade of a bookseller. In 1739 he visited the Moravian settlement at Herrnbut, where he became acquainted with Count Zinzendorf. He retired from business in 1745, and was ordained a diaconus of the Moravian Church in 1749. He died May 3, 1795. He contributed several hymns to the Moravian Hymn Book, 1754. All his hymns were included in an Appendix to his Memoirs, published by Daniel Benham in 1856. --Dictionary of Hymnology, John Julian, 1907… Go to person page >

My opening eyes with rapture see. [Sunday Morning.] Usually attributed to J. Hutton (p. 545, ii.). Duffield (English Hymns, 1886) says it is in the Appendix to D. Benham's Memoirs of Hutton, 1856, but we have failed to find it in any English edition of that work. It is in J. Codman's Boston Collection, 1813, in 6 stanzas. Its modern form of 4 stanzas is from the American Prayer Book Collection, 1826.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)