San Francisco Central Seventh-day Adventist Church

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43 When Morning Gilds the Skies

Our opening hymn today is a German hymn dating from the early 1800's. At that time it had 28 stanzas of two lines each, followed by the refrain, “May Jesus Christ be praised.” The English translation was by Edward Caswall in 1854. At that time, Caswall had recently converted to Roman Catholicism from the Church of England. All of this hymn's Scripture references are taken from the Psalms.

If you look at the top of the page on the right you see the words LAUDES DOMINI. In the SDA Hymnal, the top right always gives the name of the tune, which generally is different from the name of the hymn itself. LAUDES DOMINI is Latin for "Praise of the Lord." In this case, the words were written first, and in 1868 Sir Joseph Barnby wrote the tune especially for these words.

When morning gilds the skies my heart awaking cries,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Alike at work and prayer, to Jesus I repair:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Whene'er the sweet church bell peals over hill and dell,
May Jesus Christ praised!
O hark to what it sings, as joyously it rings,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

The night becomes as day when from the heart we say:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
The powers of darkness fear when this sweet chant they hear:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Ye nations of mankind, in this your concord find,
May Jesus Christ praised!
Let all the earth around ring joyous with the sound,
May Jesus Christ praised!

In heaven's eternal bliss the loveliest strain is this,
May Jesus Christ praised!
Let earth, and sea and sky from depth to height reply,
May Jesus Christ praised!

Be this, while life is mine, my canticle divine:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Be this th'eternal song through all the ages long,
May Jesus Christ be praised!