Aurora vails her rosy face. Ralph Erskine. [The Joys of Heaven.] First published in his Gospel Sonnets (2nd ed., Edin., 1726), as section 6 of part v., entitled "The Song of Heaven desired by Saints on Earth," in 20 stanzas of 4 lines. Of this 11 stanzas, beginning with stanza ii., "Happy the company that's gone," were included in the Sacred Songs of Scotland, 1860, (Edin., A. Elliott, p. 42). Re-written 1785 by John Berridge as No. 143 of his Sion's Songs, beginning "O happy saints, who dwell in light." [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Erskine, Ralph, was son of Henry Erskine who was Rector of Cornhill, Northumberland, before the Act of Uniformity in 1662, and after the Revolution of 1688 was Parish minister of Chirnside, Berwickshire. He was born at Moneylaws, Northumberland, March 15, 1685, his father being then in exile from Scotland for taking part in conventicles. He entered the University of Edinburgh in 1699, was licensed to preach in 1709, in 1711 ordained second minister of the Abbey Church, Dunfermline, and became first minister in 1716. Joining in 1737 with the "Four Brethren," who, protesting against the action of the General As¬sembly on Patronage, had been loosed from their charges by the Commission in 1733 and had formed themselves into a Presbytery at Gai… Go to person page >
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