Words & Music: , 1888; some hymn­als show the au­thor as Sank­ey’s pseu­do­nym, Ri­an A. Dykes.

During one of my trips to Great Bri­tain, on “The Ci­ty of Rome,” a storm raged on the sea. The wind was howl­ing through the rig­ging, and waves like mount­ains of foam were break­ing over the bow of the ves­sel. A great fear had fall­en up­on the pass­en­gers. When the storm was at its worst we all thought that we might soon go to the bot­tom of the sea. The con­vict­ion came to me that the Lord would be with us in the try­ing hour, and, sit­ting down in the read­ing room, I com­posed this hymn. Be­fore reach­ing Eng­land the tune had formed it­self in my mind, and on ar­riv­ing in Lon­don I wrote it out and had it pub­lished in “Sa­cred Songs and So­los.” It has been much em­ployed in Eng­land in con­nect­ion with ser­mons on the se­cond com­ing of Christ, and was fre­quent­ly used by Mr. Moo­dy.


Rejoice! Rejoice! our King is coming!
And the time will not be long,
Until we hail the radiant dawning,
And lift up the glad new song.

Refrain

Oh, wondrous day! oh, glorious morning,
When the Son of Man shall come!
May we with lamps all trimmed and burning
Gladly welcome His return!
Rejoice! Rejoice! our King is coming!
And the time will not be long,
Until we hail the radiant dawning,
And lift up the glad new song.

With joy we wait our King’s returning
From His heavenly mansions fair;
And with ten thousand saints appearing
We shall meet Him in the air.

Refrain

Oh, may we never weary, watching,
Never lay our armor down
Until He come, and with rejoicing
Give to each the promised crown.

Refrain