Waiting for Christ

"Till He come,"—O let the words

No. 827
Metre 7s. 6l
Tune ELTHAM.
Words Edward H. Bickersteth.
Music Lowell Mason.
Key G major
Time 3/2
3 stanzas

Words

"Till He come,"—O let the wordsLinger on the trembling chords;Let the little while betweenIn their golden light be seen;Let us think how heaven and homeLie beyond that—"Till he come."

When the weary ones we loveTo the silent land remove,Though the earth seems poor and waste,All our life-joy overcast,—Hush! be every murmur dumb;It is only—"Till he come."

Clouds and conflicts round us press;Would we have one sorrow less?All the sharpness of the cross,All that tells the world is loss,Death, and darkness, and the tomb,Only whisper—"Till he come."

About this hymn

As printed As printed: running head «WAITING FOR CHRIST—CLOSING WORK.»; hymn number «827» (large), tune name «ELTHAM. 7s. 6l» centred over the music (condensed capitals and small capitals; no point after the small-capital L), «LOWELL MASON.» at the right (capitals and small capitals), «Fine.» under it over the end of system 1, «D. C.» over the end of system 2. Stanza 1 is set with the music in three places: under system 1, between the staves, the roman line «1. "Till He come,"—O let the words Lin - ger on the trembling chords;» (lines 1–2) and, under it in italics after «D. C.—», «Let us think how heaven and home Lie be - yond that—"Till he come."» (lines 5–6, sung to system 1 after the D. C.); under system 2, «Let the lit - tle while between In their gold - en light be seen;» (lines 3–4, the alto's and bass's rhythm), with a second short line «Let the lit-tle … In their gold-en» under it for the soprano's and tenor's later entries. Stanza 1 is given below in verse order (lines 1–6). Stanzas 2–3 are printed as text (left and right column) under the italic reference line «769, 685, 244.» (= the same words may be sung to the tunes of hymns 769, 685 or 244), numbered «2», «3» without periods (written «2.», «3.» here, as in the other deliveries of this book); the lines are not indented. «Edward H. Bickersteth.» in italics after stanza 3. Line 1 of stanza 1 prints «He» with a capital; the D. C. line and stanzas 2–3 print «he»: both as printed. The print sets a thin space before «;», «?» and «!» and after the opening quotation mark («dumb ;», «Hush !», «press ;», «less ?», «only—" Till», «whisper—" Till», «seen ;»); it is closed up here, and the printer's curly quotation marks are written straight. Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's. Handwritten notes on this exemplar («Bishop Edward H. Bickersteth» beside the hymn number; «written "a quarter century after the great movement"» at the foot of the page) are not part of the print and are not transcribed.