Morning

A free download.  Morning, a setting of Isaac Watts poetry (1709), was composed by Amos Pilsbury in 1799. The audio is a 1978 recording of the Vermont-based Word of Mouth Chorus led by Larry Gordon and including Peter Amidon and Mary Alice Copeland (a few months later she became an Amidon). This is a powerful song that the Guilford (VT) Community Church UCC Choir has sung in almost every Maundy Thursday and Good Friday service for the past twenty years. It can be found in the Original Sacred Harp, an extraordinary collection of American shape note hymns that has been published continuously since 1844. Here is a Youtube of the Morning as sung at a traditional Texas Sacred Harp sing. This is actually closer to the way the Guilford Community Church Choir sings it at their church services.

LYRICS

Morning
Isaac Watts

He dies, the friend of sinners dies,
Lo! Salem’s daughters weep around;
A solemn darkness veils the skies,
A sudden trembling shakes the ground.

Ye saints approach! the anguish view
Of Him who groans beneath your load,
He gives His precious life for you,
For you He sheds His precious blood.