Look from Thy sphere of endless day

Look from Thy sphere of endless day. William Cullen Bryant* (1794-1878). According to Duffield (1886, p. 320), this was written in 1840 for the anniversary of a missionary society. It was printed in a private collection of nineteen hymns in 1845 (Polack, 1942, 1958, p. 349), and subsequently in Bryant’s Hymns (1864). It is a stirring call to proclaim the gospel, although the reference to the ‘sons of men’ (stanza 2 line 3) makes it unsuitable for modern worship without alteration. Some Scottish books (Church Hymnary, 1898, RCH), perhaps attracted by the word ‘glen’ (stanza 2 line 1), alter the first line to ‘the sphere of endless day’. The traditional text was in five stanzas: Look from Thy...