This is the day of Light. J. Ellerton. [Sunday.] Written in 1867, and first published in Hymns for Special Services and Festivals in Chester Cathedral, a collection of 100 hymns, compiled by Dean Howson, 1867 (Chester: Phillipson & Golder), No. 51, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. From thence it passed into the 1868 Appendix to Hymns Ancient & Modern; the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns, 1871; Thring's Collection, 1882, and several other hymnals both in Great Britain and America. It is a good hymn, and ranks in popularity with some of the best of Mr. Ellerton's compositions.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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This is the day of Light, p. 1165, i. In the 1904 ed. of Hymns Ancient & Modern, an additional stanza, "This is the day of Bread," is given. Canon Ellerton's revised and authorized text is No. 37 in Church Hymns, 1903. It does not contain this stanza.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)