Darkness over the world was brooding before the morn

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Darkness over the world was brooding before the morn

Author: William Gaskell
Tune: EMMANUEL (12345)
Published in 6 hymnals

Representative Text

Darkness o’er the world was brooding
Sadder than Egyptian gloom;
Souls by myriads lay in slumber
Deep as of the sealed tomb.

Earth had lost the links which bound it
To the throne of light above;
Yet an eye was watching o’er it,
And that eye was full of love.

Like a glorious beam of morning,
Straight a ray pierced through the cloud,
Spirits mightily awakening
From their dark and heavy shroud.

Still that ray shines on and brightens,
Chasing mist and gloom away;
Happy they on whom it gathers
With its full and perfect day!

Source: A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (15th ed.) #104

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Author: William Gaskell

Gaskell, William, M.A., son of Mr. William Gaskell, was born at Latchford (a suburb of Warrington, on the Cheshire side of the Mersey), 24 July, 1805. He was educated at Manchester New College and at the University of Glasgow, where he graduated M.A. in 1825. In 1828 he became co-pastor with the Rev. J. G. Robberds at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel, Manchester, a position he held until his death. Mr. Gaskell was a man of cultivated mind and considerable literary ability. His publications include Lectures on the Lancashire Dialect, 1853, a small volume of Temperance Rhymes, 1839, and various theological works. In 1832 he married Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson, who afterwards attained celebrity as the authoress of Mary Barton, and of other popul… Go to person page >

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