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The Southern harmony, and musical companion

containing a choice collection of tunes, hymns, psalms, odes, and anthems

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[Wake, Isles of the South! your redemption is near]
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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86

[Wake, Isles of the South! your redemption is near]

[_]

The words of this piece were “composed by Wm. B. Tappan, Esq.. and sung on the wharf at New Haven, at the embarkation of the missionaries for the Sandwich Islands, in 1822.” O what hath God wrought in those islands since that time! “The parched ground has become a pool”—“The shrines of Atöol” have, indeed, become “sacred to God.” The largest church on earth is there; those poor heathens have been given to Jesus for his “inheritance”—those “uttermost parts of the earth, for his possession!” “Alleluia! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!”—W.H.

[_]

The following poem is scored for music in the source text.

1.

Wake, Isles of the South! you redemption is near,
No longer repose in the borders of gloom;
The strength of his chosen in love shall appear,
And light shall arise on the verge of the tomb,
And light shall arise on the verge of the tomb.

2.

The billows that girt you, the wild waves that roar,
The zephyrs that play where the ocean-storms cease,
Shall bear the rich freight to your desolate shore,
Shall waft the glad tidings of pardon and peace.

3.

On the islands that sit in the regions of night,
The lands of despair, to oblivion a prey,
The morning will open with healing and light,
The glad Star of Bethlehem brighten to day.

4.

The altar and idol in dust overthrown,
The incense forbade that was hallow'd with blood;
The priest of Melchizedek there shall atone,
And the shrine of Atöol be sacred to God.

5.

The heathen will hasten to welcome the time,
The day-spring, the prophet in vision once saw,
When the beams of Messiah will 'lumine each clime,
And the isles of the ocean shall wait for his law.