The Swift Declining Day

Representative Text

1 The swift declining day,
How fast its moments fly!
While evening's broad and gloomy shade
Gains on the western sky.

2 Ye mortals, mark its pace,
And use the hours of light;
And know, its Maker can command
At once eternal night.

3 Give glory to the Lord,
Who rules the whirling sphere;
Submissive at his footstool bow,
And seek salvation there.

4 Then shall new lustre break
Through death's impending gloom,
And lead you to unchanging light,
In your celestial home.

Source: Laudes Domini: a selection of spiritual songs, ancient and modern for use in the prayer-meeting #77

Author: Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: The swift declining day
Title: The Swift Declining Day
Author: Philip Doddridge
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

SCHUMANN (51567)

SCHUMANN is one of many hymn tunes arranged by Lowell Mason (PHH 96). He first published the arrangement in Cantica Laudis (1850), a collection he edited with George J. Webb (PHH 559). First called WHITE, the tune was marked "Arr. from Schumann" and was thus ascribed to the German composer Robert A.…

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BRADEN (Bradbury)


DENNIS (Nägeli)

Lowell Mason (PHH 96) arranged DENNIS and first published it in The Psaltery (1845), a hymnal he compiled with George. Webb (PHH 559). Mason attributed the tune to Johann G. Nageli (b. Wetzikon, near Zurich, Switzerland, 1773; d. Wetzikon, 1836) but included no source reference. Nageli presumably pu…

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Timeline

Instances

Instances (101 - 124 of 124)
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The Harp #951

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The Harp. 2nd ed. #a951

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The Key-Stone Collection of Church Music #152b

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The Lyrica #421

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The Mozart Collection of Sacred Music #140b

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The New Laudes Domini #210

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The New York Choralist #139b

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The Psalmist #445

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The Psalmist #445

The Psalmodist #d216

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The Psalmody #410

The School Psalter #d274

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The Seventh-Day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book #556

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The Springfield Collection of Hymns for Sacred Worship #181

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The Standard Church Hymnal #75

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The Students' Hymnal #90

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The Students' Hymnal #90

The Thanksgiving #d225

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The Virginia Selection of Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs #670

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The Voice of Praise #828

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The Y.M.C.A. Praise Book #19

Vestry Songs #d203

Virginia Selection of Psalms #d416

Pages

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