Hail to the Sabbath day

Author: Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch

Bulfinch, Stephen Greenleaf, D.D. This Unitarian minister was born at Boston, June 18, 1809, and removed to Washington in 1818, his father being the architect of the Capitol. He graduated at Columbian College and the Cambridge Theological School. In 1831 lie was ordained at Charleston, S.C., as assistant to Dr. Gilman. Subsequently he was pastor at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Washington, 1838; Nashua, New Hampshire, 1845; Dorchester, Mass., 1852; and "East Cambridge, Mass., 1865. He died at the last place, Oct. 12, 1870. His works include:— (1) Contemplations of the Saviour; A Series of Extracts from the Gospel History, with Reflections and Original and Selected Hymns. Boston, Carter and Hendee, 1832. This has been reprinted in England. (… Go to person page >

Hail to the Sabbath day. Sunday. In the Contemplations, &c, p. 45. It is appended to Sect. xii. on the “Walk through the cornfields," and is in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. It is in extensive use both in Great Britain and America, and is the best known of this author's hymns. In many collections it begins with st. ii., " Lord, in Thy [this] sacred hour."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)