Thanks for being a Hymnary.org user. You are one of more than 10 million people from 200-plus countries around the world who have benefitted from the Hymnary website in 2024! If you feel moved to support our work today with a gift of any amount and a word of encouragement, we would be grateful.

You can donate online at our secure giving site.

Or, if you'd like to make a gift by check, please make it out to CCEL and mail it to:
Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 3201 Burton Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546
And may the promise of Advent be yours this day and always.

This Is the Day of Light

This is the day of light

Author: John Ellerton (1867)
Published in 279 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 This is the day of light:
let there be light today;
O day-spring, rise upon our night
and chase its gloom away.

2 This is the day of rest:
our failing strength renew;
on weary brain and troubled breast
shed thou thy freshening dew.

3 This is the day of peace:
thy peace our spirits fill;
bid thou the blasts of discord cease,
the waves of strife be still.

4 This is the day of prayer:
let earth to heaven draw near;
lift up our hearts to seek thee there,
come down to meet us here.

5 This is the first of days;
send forth thy quickening breath,
and wake dead souls to love and praise,
O Vanquisher of death.

Source: CPWI Hymnal #32

Author: John Ellerton

John Ellerton (b. London, England, 1826; d. Torquay, Devonshire, England, 1893) Educated at King William's College on the Isle of Man and at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, he was ordained in the Church of England in 1851. He served six parishes, spending the longest time in Crewe Green (1860-1872), a church of steelworkers and farmers. Ellerton wrote and translated about eighty hymns, many of which are still sung today. He helped to compile Church Hymns and wrote its handbook, Notes and Illustrations to Church Hymns (1882). Some of his other hymn texts were published in The London Mission Hymn Book (1884). Bert Polman… Go to person page >

Notes

This is the day of Light. J. Ellerton. [Sunday.] Written in 1867, and first published in Hymns for Special Services and Festivals in Chester Cathedral, a collection of 100 hymns, compiled by Dean Howson, 1867 (Chester: Phillipson & Golder), No. 51, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. From thence it passed into the 1868 Appendix to Hymns Ancient & Modern; the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns, 1871; Thring's Collection, 1882, and several other hymnals both in Great Britain and America. It is a good hymn, and ranks in popularity with some of the best of Mr. Ellerton's compositions.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

===================

This is the day of Light, p. 1165, i. In the 1904 ed. of Hymns Ancient & Modern, an additional stanza, "This is the day of Bread," is given. Canon Ellerton's revised and authorized text is No. 37 in Church Hymns, 1903. It does not contain this stanza.

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

Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #6645
  • Adobe Acrobat image (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer score (NWC)
  • XML score (XML)

Instances

Instances (1 - 11 of 11)

Church Hymnal, Mennonite #174

TextPage Scan

CPWI Hymnal #32

Great Songs of the Church (Revised) #23

Hymns Ancient and Modern, New Standard Edition #21

TextPage Scan

Hymns for Today's Church (2nd ed.) #380

Hymns of the Christian Life #413

Praise! psalms hymns and songs for Christian worship #230

TextPage Scan

The A.M.E. Zion Hymnal #315

The Baptist Hymnal #39

TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #6645

Text

The Song Book of the Salvation Army #669

Include 268 pre-1979 instances
Suggestions or corrections? Contact us
It looks like you are using an ad-blocker. Ad revenue helps keep us running. Please consider white-listing Hymnary.org or getting Hymnary Pro to eliminate ads entirely and help support Hymnary.org.