Scripture References:
st. 1 =John 8:12, 2 Pet. 1:19, Luke 1:78, Mal. 4:2, Ps.27:1
Written by the great hymn writer Charles Wesley (PHH 267), this text was published in three stanzas in Hymns and Sacred Poems, compiled in 1740 by Charles Wesley and his" brother John. James Montgomery called it "one of Charles Wesley's loveliest progeny.”
Titled "Morning Hymn" by Wesley, it is unusual in that it does not contain the customary reference to the previous night's rest or to the work and dangers of the day ahead. The text begins by placing the focus entirely on Christ, the "light of the world," the sun of Righteousness who rises with healing in his wings"; he is the "Dayspring" and "Daystar." Thus the "light of Christ" is to fill our lives and lead us forward "to the perfect day."
Liturgical Use:
As a morning hymn during the Easter vigil service and during Advent; other services that have as their theme Christ as "light."
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook
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Christ, Whose glory fills the skies, Christ the true, &c. C. Wesley. [Morning.] First published in J. and C. Wesley's Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1740, p. 61, in 3 stanzas of 6 lines, and entitled "A Morning Hymn" (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. i. p. 224). In 1776, A. M. Toplady included it, unaltered, in his Psalms and Hymns, No. 296, and for many years it was quoted as his production. Montgomery, however, corrected the error in his Christian Psalmist in 1825. Its extensive use in the Church of England, and by Nonconformists, is due mainly to Toplady and Montgomery. The latter held it in special esteem, and regarded it as "one of C. Wesley's loveliest progeny." In its complete form it was not included in the Wesleyan Hymn Book until 1875. Its use is very extensive. The hymn:—"Thou, Whose glory fills the skies," as found in the People's Hymnal, 1867, No. 570, is the same hymn with slight alterations. In the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns, the doxology is from the Cooke and Denton Hymnal, 1853; stanzas ii. and iii. have also been used in the cento "O disclose Thy lovely face," q. v. It has been rendered into Latin by the Rev. R. Bingham, in his Hymnologia Christiana Latina, 1871, as "Christe, cujus gloriae." The American use of the original is extensive.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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