The Sands of Time Are Sinking

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The sands of time are sinking

Author: Samuel Rutherford; Adapter: A. R. Cousin (1857)
Tune: RUTHERFORD (Urhan)
Published in 327 hymnals

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Representative Text

1 The sands of time are sinking;
the dawn of heaven breaks;
the summer morn I've sighed for,
the fair sweet morn awakes;
dark, dark has been the midnight,
but dayspring is at hand,
and glory, glory dwelleth
in Emmanuel's land.

2 The King there in His beauty
without a veil is seen;
it were a well-spent journey,
though trials lay between:
the Lamb with His fair army
on Zion's mountain stands,
and glory, glory dwelleth
in Emmanuel's land.

3 O Christ, He is the fountain,
the deep, sweet well of love!
The streams on earth I've tasted;
more deep I'll drink above:
there to an ocean fullness
His mercy doth expand,
and glory, glory dwelleth
in Emmanuel's land.

4 The bride eyes not her garment,
but her dear bridegroom's face;
I will not gaze at glory,
but on my King of grace;
not at the crown He giveth,
but on His piercéd hands;
the Lamb is all the glory
of Emmanuel's land.

Source: Psalms and Hymns to the Living God #421

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Author: Samuel Rutherford

(no biographical information available about Samuel Rutherford.) Go to person page >

Adapter: A. R. Cousin

Cousin, Anne Ross, née Cundell, is the only daughter of David Ross Cundell, M.D., Leith, and is the widow of the Rev. William Cousin, late Minister of the Free Church of Melrose. She has contributed many poems to various periodicals; 7 hymns to The Service of Praise, 1865, edited by the Rev. J. H. Wilson, of Edinburgh; and 1 to the Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship, 1866, the Hymnal of the English Presbyterian Church. Four of her hymns are included in the Scottish Presbyterian Hymnal, 1876. Her most popular hymn, "The sands of time are sinking," was first published in The Christian Treasury for 1857, and gives its title to the collected edition of her poems published in 1876, as Immanuel’s Land and other Pieces by A. R. C. This is a co… Go to person page >

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First Line:	The sands of time are sinking
Title:	The Sands of Time Are Sinking
Adapter:	A. R. Cousin (1857)
Author:	Samuel Rutherford
Meter:	7.6.7.6.7.6.7.5
Source:	Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661), based on
Language:	English
Refrain First Line:	Come join, join your voices
Notes:	French translation: "L'horizon se colore" by Ruben Saillens
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

The sands of time are sinking, pp. 264, ii., 1558, i. The cento in The Baptist Church Hymnal, 1900, was arranged by Mrs. Cousin, from her poem of 19 stanzas for that collection. Mrs. Cousin was b. 1824.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

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