We lift our hearts to Thee, O Day-Star

Verse 1
We lift our hearts to thee,
O Day-Star from on high!
The sun itself is but thy shade,
Yet chears both earth and sky.

Verse 2
O let thy orient beams
The night of sin disperse!
Those[1] mists of error and of vice,
Which shade the universe!

Verse 3
How beauteous nature now!
How dark and sad before!
With joy we view the pleasing change,
And nature’s God adore.

Verse 4
O may no gloomy crime
Polute the rising day;
Or kindly tears,[2] like evening dew,
Wash all the stains away.

Verse 5
May we this life improve,
To mourn for errors past,
And live this short revolving day
As if it were our last.

Verse 6
To God the Father, Son,
And Spirit, One and Three,
Be glory, as it was, is now,
And shall for ever be.

[1] Wesley changed “Those” to “The” in 1743.
[2] Wesley changed “kindly tears” to “Jesus’ blood” in 1743.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: "A Morning Hymn." Introduced in A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1741), published by John Wesley (London: William Strahan, 1741). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 2 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1869), page 26.
Publishing: Public Domain