Salvation (Elisha West)

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  • (Posted 2020-01-02)  CPDL #56504:         
Editor: Barry Johnston (submitted 2020-01-02).   Score information: Letter, 2 pages, 66 kB   Copyright: Public Domain
Edition notes: Oval note edition, as written in 1802.
  • (Posted 2020-01-02)  CPDL #56503:       
Editor: Barry Johnston (submitted 2020-01-02).   Score information: 7 x 10 inches (landscape), 2 pages, 63 kB   Copyright: Public Domain
Edition notes: Note shapes added (4-shape).

General Information

Title: Salvation
First Line: Shepherds, rejoice! lift up your eyes
Composer: Elisha West
Lyricist: Isaac Watts

Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: SacredSet piece   Meter: 86. 86 (C.M.)

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1802 in The Musical Concert, Edition 1
Description: Words in four stanzas. The first two stanzas are by Isaac Watts, 1707, Hymn 4 of Book 1, stanzas one and two. The last two stanzas are by an anonymous author, first published 1799, stanzas one and three.

External websites:

Original text and translations

Original text and translations may be found at Shepherds, rejoice! lift up your eyes.

English.png English text

1. Awake, my soul, tune every string,
In God thy Savior praise,
join with the heavenly hosts and sing,
The highest notes they raise.

2. Tell how the glorious Son of God,
Forsook the realms of bliss,
Descended to our guilty world,
Proclaiming life and peace.

3. Angelic hosts declare his birth,
“Glory to God on high,
Good will to men and peace on earth:
Behold the Savior nigh!"

4. “To Bethlehem's city quick repair,"
The ethereal spirits cry,
"And see the promised Savior there,
“Low in a manger lie."

 

5. "With humble faith and holy fear,
Go visit Christ your king.”
Their heavenly notes the shepherds hear,
And join the praise they sing.

6. On Jordan's banks the eternal God
His birth divine declares;
“This is my Son." Lo! on his head
The heavenly dove appears.

7. Holy his life, his doctrines true;
(How bright the godhead shone!)
Diseases heard and Satan knew,
That what he spake was done.

8. Behold the Savior on the tree,
With arms extended wide
From death a sinful world to free,
He groaned, and bled and died:

 

9. The sun its beams no longer lent,
To see its Maker bleed;
His groans the rocks and mountains rent,
And woke the sleeping dead.

10. But when the appointed hour was come.
The sleeping Savior woke:
He rose triumphing from the tomb,
The chains of death he broke.

11. On the eternal God's right hand,
The great Redeemer sits;
Both heaven and earth to his command
The Father now commits.

12. Our advocate himself he styles,
The sinner's cause he pleads,
Through him the Father looks and smiles,
While thus he intercedes.

 

13. Whom once he loves he'll ne'er forget,
His counsels guide them still:
His grace their weary souls will seat
On heaven's eternal hill.

14. Reviving thought! then, humble soul,
With courage venture on
Though earth and hell against them roll.
In Christ the battle's won.

– Nathan Strong, The Hartford Selection, 1802 (First Edition 1799)