Waiting for Christ

Watchmen on the walls of Zion

No. 854
Metre 8s, 7s & 4.
Tune ZION.
Words Anon.
Music Thomas Hastings.
Key D major
Singing key C major
Time 3/4
4 stanzas

Words

Watchmen on the walls of Zion,What, O tell us, of the night?Is the day-star now arising?Will the morn soon greet our sight?O'er your visionShine there now some rays of light?

Tell, O tell us, are the landmarksOn our voyage all passed by?Are we nearing now the haven?Can we e'en the land descry?Do we trulySee the heavenly kingdom nigh?

Light is beaming, day is coming!Let us sound aloud the cry;We behold the day-star risingPure and bright in yonder sky!Saints, be joyful;Your redemption draweth nigh.

We have found the chart and compass,And are sure the land is near;Onward, onward we are hasting,Soon the haven will appear;Let your voicesSound aloud your holy cheer.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «854» (large), tune name «ZION. 8s, 7s & 4.» centred over the music (condensed capitals and small capitals), «THOMAS HASTINGS.» at the right (capitals and small capitals); running head «WAITING FOR CHRIST—CLOSING WORK.». The figures «1830» written by hand above the composer's name are an annotation of this exemplar, not print, and are not transcribed. Stanza 1 is interlinear, between the staves: under system 1, «1.» and a brace with two lines, «{ Watchmen on the walls of Zi - on, What, O tell us, of the night? / Is the day-star now a - ris-ing? Will the morn soon greet our sight? }» (the first and the second time through the repeated first part), then «O'er your» after the brace; under system 2 one line, «vision Shine there now some rays of light? O'er your vision Shine there now some rays of light?» — the music prints lines 5–6 twice. «Watchmen» and «vision» are printed unbroken under two notes. The reference line «844, 132.» (= also sung to the tunes of hymns 844 and 132) stands above stanza 2, directly under the music. Stanzas 2–4 are printed as text in the left column below the music, lines 2, 4 and 6 indented and line 5 indented further; «Anon.» in italics after stanza 4. Stanza 1 is set here in the same six-line pattern, lines 5–6 once (they are sung twice, as the music prints them). The print sets a thin space before «?», «;» and «!» («by ?», «haven ?», «descry ?», «nigh ?», «coming !», «cry ;», «sky !», «joyful ;», «near ;», «appear ;»); it is closed up here. The dotless «ın» of stanza 3 line 4 is a broken «i» and is written «in». Spelling («Saviour»-type forms do not occur), punctuation and capitals are the print's.