Bible Songs — Missionary Songs

Watchman, blow the gospel trumpet

No. 1245
Tune BLOW THE TRUMPET.
Words Dr. H. L. Gilmour.
Music Wm. J. Kirkpatrick.
Key B-flat major
Singing key A♭ major
Time 4/4
4 stanzas

Words

Watchman, blow the gospel trumpet,Ev'ry soul a warning give;Whosoever hears the messageMay repent, and turn and live.

Chorus.

Blow the trumpet, trusty watchman,Blow it loud o'er land and sea;God commissions, sound the message!Ev'ry captive may be free.

Sound it loud o'er ev'ry hill-top,Gloomy shade and sunny plain;Ocean depths repeat the message,Full salvation's glad refrain.

Sound it in the hedge and highway,Earth's dark spots where exiles roam;Let it tell all things are ready,Father waits to welcome home.

Sound it for the heavy laden,Weary, longing to be free;Sound a Saviour's invitation,Sweetly saying, "Come to me."

About this hymn

As printed As printed: no running head on this page; hymn number «1245» (large, left), title «BLOW THE TRUMPET.» centred (condensed capitals and small capitals); under it, on three lines, the epigraph «"Whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul."—Eze. 33 : 4, 5.»; on the next line «DR. H. L. GILMOUR.» at the left (words) and «WM. J. KIRKPATRICK.» at the right (music), both in capitals and small capitals. No meter and no reference line are printed (stanza and chorus are 8.7.8.7). The four stanzas are interlinear, numbered «1.»–«4.», in systems 1–2; «CHORUS.» stands over system 3 and the chorus words run as one line in systems 3–4. In m11–m12 a second, lower line «loud o'er land and sea;» is printed under the alto, tenor and bass, which answer the soprano's «Blow it loud o'er land and sea; . . .» (the three dots stand for the soprano's held «sea;»); the echo repeats the soprano's words and is not written again below. In stanza 3 the half-line «Earth's dark spots where exiles roam;» is set tight, without word spaces. The chorus is printed once and is sung after every stanza. Under the music, centred: «From "Songs of Triumph," by per.» Words printed whole under two notes («Watchman,», «warning», «Gloomy», «exiles», «message,» in stanza 2, «watchman,» in the chorus) and the syllable divisions are recorded in `lyrics_syllables.txt`; here the words are joined («hill-top» keeps its hyphen as a compound, «highway» is joined, as elsewhere in this book). Curly quotes and apostrophes are written straight. Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's («Ev'ry», «o'er», «Saviour's», «"Come to me."»).