Bible Songs — Judgment and Second Advent

We Know not the Hour

We know not the hour of the Master's appearing,

No. 1321
Tune WE KNOW NOT THE HOUR.
Words F. E. B.
Music F. E. Belden.
Key C major
Singing key B♭ major
Time 3/4 (printed «3/4 4/4»; m4 and m8 are 4/4)
3 stanzas

Words

We know not the hour of the Master's appearing,Yet signs all foretell that the moment is nearingWhen he shall return,—'tis a promise most cheering,—But we know not the hour.

Chorus.

He will come, let us watch and be ready;He will come,He will come, hallelujah! hallelujah!He will come,He will come in the clouds of his Father's bright glory,—But we know not the hour.

There's light for the wise who are seeking salvation,There's truth in the book of the Lord's Revelation,Each prophecy points to the great consummation,—But we know not the hour.

We'll watch and we'll pray, with our lamps trimmed and burning,We'll work and we'll wait till the Master's returning,We'll sing and rejoice, ev'ry omen discerning,—But we know not the hour.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1321» (large, left), title «WE KNOW NOT THE HOUR.» centred (condensed capitals with larger initials); under it the epigraph from Matt. 24:36–42 in five lines of small roman, with the printed omission marks «* » and « * *»; then «F. E. B.» at the left (words) and «F. E. BELDEN.» at the right (music), capitals and small capitals; «Allegretto.» in italic over the first bar. The three stanzas are interlinear, three lines between the staves of systems 1–3, numbered «1.»–«3.» in system 1; each stanza is four verse lines (12, 12, 12 and 6 syllables), given here as the verse lines of the poem (the staff breaks fall inside the second and third verse lines: «fore-/tell» and «return,—/'tis»). In stanza 3 «lamps trimmed and burn-» is set in a condensed type to fit under the music. «CHORUS.» is printed over the treble staff at the start of system 4. The chorus has two lines of words in systems 4 and 5: the upper line, sung by all, with dots where «come,» is held by soprano and alto («He will come, . . . . let us watch …», «come, . . . . hal-le-lu-jah!»), and, printed lower and a little to the right, the echo «He will come,» sung at the same time by tenor and bass (twice). The chorus is given here once, after stanza 1: the echo lines stand under the lines they answer; the hold dots are not reproduced. The chorus ends at the top of the next page under the running title «WE KNOW NOT THE HOUR.—Concluded.» («clouds of his Father's bright glory,—But we know not the hour.»). Syllable hyphens are joined («Mas-ter's», «ap-pear-ing», «seek-ing», «sal-va-tion», «mo-ment», «Rev-e-la-tion», «proph-e-cy», «re-turn-ing», «re-joice», «prom-ise», «con-sum-ma-tion», «ev-'ry» → «ev'ry», «o-men», «dis-cern-ing», «read-y», «hal-le-lu-jah», «glo-ry»; «Father's» is printed unbroken under two notes). The print sets a thin space before «;» and «!» («read - y ;», «jah !»); it is closed up here. Under the music of the first page: «Copyrighted 1886 by F. E. Belden.» (centred) and the page number «532». Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's («Master's», «Lord's Revelation», «Father's»; «,—» after «cheering», «consummation», «discerning» and «glory»; no comma after «nearing»).