The morning dawns upon the place

Representative Text

The morning dawns upon the place
Where Jesus spent the night in prayer;
Through yielding glooms behold His face,
Nor form nor comeliness is there.

Last eve, by those He called His own,
Betray'd, forsaken, or denied,
He met His enemies alone
In all their malice, rage, and pride.

Brought forth to judgment, now He stands
Arraign'd, condemn'd, at Pilate's bar:
Here, spurn'd by fierce praetorian bands,
There, mock'd by Herod's men of war.

He bears their buffeting and scorn,
Mock-homage of the lip and knee,
The purple robe, the crown of thorn,
The scourge, the nail, the accursed tree.

No guile within His mouth is found,
He neither threatens nor complains:
Meek as a lamb for slaughter bound,
Dumb 'midst His murderers He remains.

But hark! He prays--tis for His foes;
He speaks,--tis comfort to His friends;
Answers,--and Paradise bestows;
He bows His head; the conflict ends.

Truly this was the Son of God!
Though in a servant's mean disguise;
And, bruised beneath the Father's rod,
Not for Himself--for Man He dies.

Sacred Poems and Hymns

Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: The morning dawns upon the place
Author: James Montgomery
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

The morning dawns upon the place. J. Montgomery. [Passiontide.] Published in his Greenland and Other Poems, 1819, p. 181, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines and headed "Christ's Passion." In Cotterill's Selection 1819, No. 223, it is headed "For Good Friday." In his Christian Psalmist, 1825, No. 492, Montgomery gave it in a revised form in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, the omitted lines being stanza iv. 1ines 1-4.

“He dies:—the veil is rent in twain:
Darkness o'er all the land is spread:
High without tempest rolls the main:
Earth quakes: the graves give up their dead."

The 1825 text was repeated with slight variations in Montgomery's Original Hymns, 1853, No. 61, and is that usually given in the hymn-hooks both in Great Britain and America. Sometimes the text is abbreviated.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

HAMBURG

Lowell Mason (PHH 96) composed HAMBURG (named after the German city) in 1824. The tune was published in the 1825 edition of Mason's Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music. Mason indicated that the tune was based on a chant in the first Gregorian tone. HAMBURG is a very simple tune with…

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ILLA (Mason)


LEIPZIG (Psalmodist)


Timeline

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The Cyber Hymnal #9796
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The Cyber Hymnal #9796

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