The sun is fast descending

The sun is fast descending

Author: Ludwig Andreas Gotter
Published in 8 hymnals

Representative Text

1 The sun is fast descending
His circuit from on high;
The shades of eve are blending
With yonder distant sky;
Soon will the landscape vanish,
And sable darkness banish
These scenes from mortal eye.

2 Thus too our days are ending,
The race will soon be run,
Our sun is fast descending;
Our work is almost done.
Soon will our Master greet us,
And heav'nly legions meet us
To waft us to our home.

3 Then pilgrims! come, delay not
On this unfriendly ground,
And in the desert say not,
That you have Canaan found.
The fiery pillar leads us,
The promised manna feeds us,
But barren is the ground.

4 Come tune the harp to gladness,
A song of Zion sing;
Away with thoughts of sadness,
We'll praise our heav'nly king.
Our trials and our crosses,
Our sufferings and our losses,
But keep us near to him.

5 But Zion! when we raise thee
A song in distant lands,
The harp that fain would praise thee,
Falls tuneless from our hands.
Our hearts, distress'd and lonely,
Can leap for gladness only
In thy dear happy land.

Source: Hymns, Selected and Original: for public and private worship (1st ed.) #456

Author: Ludwig Andreas Gotter

Gotter, Ludwig Andreas, son of Johann Christian Gotter, Court preacher and Superintendent at Gotha, was born at Gotha, May 26, 1661. He was at first privy secretary and then Hofrath at Gotha, where he died Sept. 19, 1735. He was a pious, spiritually-minded man, with tendencies towards Pietism; and one of the best hymnwriters of the period. Of his printed hymns the earliest appeared in the Geistliches Gesang-Buch, Halle, 1697. Of the 23 included in Freylinghausen's Geistleiches Gesang-Buch, 1704, and Neues, 1714, seven have been translated into English, besides his version of J. W. Petersen's "Salve, crux beata, salve (q. v.). J. C. Wetzel, who had become acquainted with him during a visit Gotter made to Römhild in 1733, mentions a complete… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: The sun is fast descending
Author: Ludwig Andreas Gotter
Copyright: Public Domain

Timeline

Instances

Instances (1 - 8 of 8)

Die Union Choral Harmonie #d169

Page Scan

Hymns, Selected and Original, for Public and Private Worship #456

Page Scan

Hymns #456

Page Scan

Hymns #456

Page Scan

Hymns #456

Page Scan

Hymns #456

TextPage Scan

Hymns, Selected and Original #456

Suggestions or corrections? Contact us