Arise and shine, your light is come

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Arise and shine, your light is come

Author: James Montgomery
Published in 3 hymnals

Representative Text

Arise and shine, your light is come,
Fair islands of the West!
Awake and sing, once deaf and dumb,
Now islands of tne blest.

Shine, for the glory of the Lord
Your coral-reefs surrounds:
Sing, for the trumpet of His word
O'er all your ocean sounds.

Poor Africa! through thy waste sands,
Where Calvary's fountain flows,
Deserts become Immanuel's lands,
And blossom like the rose.

India, beneath the chariot wheels
Of Juggernaut o'erthrown,
Thy heart a quickening Spirit feels,
A pulse beats through the stone.

China! behold thy quaking wall:
Foredoom'd by Heaven's decree,
A hand is writing on it--"Fall!"
A voice goes forth--"Be free!"

Ye Pagan tribes! of every race,
Clime, country, language, hue,
Believe, obey, be saved by grace,
The Gospel speaks to you.

Father of lights! Thy will be done
Here, as by saints above,
268
Give earth's whole empire to Thy Son,
For He must reign in love:--

Reign, till beneath His feet, all foes;
Vanquish'd for ever lie;
And the last Judgment's sentence close
The book of prophecy.

Sacred Poems and Hymns

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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 >

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