Long as the darkening cloud abode

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Long as the darkening cloud abode

Author: George Richards
Published in 18 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Long, as the dark'ning cloud abode,
So long did ancient Isr'el rest;
Nor mov'd they, till the guiding God,
In brighter garments stood confest.

2 Father of spirits! light of light!
Lift up the cloud, and rend the vail:
Shine forth in fire, amid that night,
Whose blackness makes the heart to fail.

3 'Tis done! to Christ the power is giv'n
His death—it rent the vail away.
Our great forerunner enters heav'n,
And opes th'eternal gates of day.

4 Nor shall those mists that brood o'er time,
Forever blind the mental eye;
They backward roll, and light sublime,
Beams glory from the God on high.

5 Adoring nations hail his dawn,
All kingdoms bless the noontide beam,
And light unfolding life's full morn,
Is vast creation's deathless theme.

Source: Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs: selected and original, designed for the use of the Church Universal in public and private devotion #XXXIV

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Author: George Richards

Richards, George, born near Newport, Rhode Island, circa 1755. For some years he was Purser and Chaplain in the United States Navy, and also taught a school in Boston. In 1789 he became an Universalist preacher, ministered at Portsmouth, New Haven, 1793-1809, and from 1809 in Philadelphia, where, his mind having given way under trouble, he died by his own hand, March 16, 1816. With S. Lane he edited the Universalist Hymn Book, published at Boston, 1792. This was one of the earliest collections of that body. It contained 49 of Richards's hymns. In 1801 he published A Collection of Hymns, Dover, New Hampshire, which contained 6 additional hymns by himself, and in 1806, also at Dover, a second edition of the same, greatly enlarged, with anothe… Go to person page >

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