O'er the Gloomy Hills of Darkness

There are conflicting accounts of why the hymn was written. According to one account, George Bowen was converted to Christianity through hearing a Welsh girl singing hymns. He later went to stay at Llwyn-gwair Manor at the same time that the Welsh Methodist Association were there. While there, he met Williams and asked him to compose some verse about the Preseli Hills. "O'er the Gloomy Hills of Darkness" was written as a result of these requests. It has been claimed that the hymn was first written in Welsh as English was not Williams' first language and that it was later translated into English by his son John Williams, because Williams did not know enough English to fully express the intent of the original Welsh verses in translation. This is incorrect. Williams had a mainly English-medium education and wrote about 120 hymns and some elegies in English. Williams published the original English text in his second collection of English hymns in 1772 and a Welsh translation by his son, John Williams (1754-1828), was published in 1795. In 1836, "O'er the Gloomy hills of Darkness" was reviewed in an issue of The Eclectic Review. In a remarkably snide review, the hymn, among many others, is criticised for a lack of grammatical correctness as well as a lack of rhyme in the first verse, " ...inane verbiage preferred by worthy people to the noblest compositions of sanctified genius; and to blot it out from our hymn-books would be a species of sacrilege". This was attributed to Williams' lack of English as a native language gave rise to "a stiffness apparent" in the hymn. The New York Times stated it had gained popularity because of Williams' "ease and sweetness" in his hymn writing. == Abolitionism ==

The second verse of the hymn begins with the lines "Let the Indian, let the negro, Let the rude barbarian see". Williams included this after hearing stories of promising missionary contact with Cherokee tribes and with slaves in the Province of Georgia. When the hymn became established in the United States, slave owners changed the line referencing "Indian" and "negro" to "Let the dark benighted pagan". The abolitionist Ebenezer Davies claimed “The altered reading, I learned, prevails universally in America, except in the original version used by the Welsh congregations. Slave-holders, and the abettors of that horrid system which makes it a crime to teach a negro to read the Word of God, felt perhaps that they could not devoutly and consistently sing "Let the Indian, let the negro ... see”. With its original words, the hymn was understood to speak to the experience of slavery, even if in an evangelising frame, and Pantycelyn had previously written critically of the transatlantic slave trade. E. Wyn James (2007) notes that the hymn "was sung with gusto, for example, on board the ships which took former slaves from America to the colony of Sierra Leone in the 1790s, as part of the attempt by members of the ‘Clapham Sect’ and others to create a homeland for freed slaves back in Africa". In the early 1900s, the second verse would often be omitted altogether from hymnals. == Hymnals ==

"O'er the Gloomy Hills of Darkness" first appeared in published hymnals in 1792. After being published in 374 hymnals throughout history, in the 1960s the hymn stopped being published in all Christian hymnals. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints retained the hymn in their hymnals from 1927 until dropping it in 1985. This was because its members in modern times felt that the hymn connected Native Americans and black people with barbarians. The hymn's lyrical style set the tone for future missionary hymns. "O'er the Gloomy Hills of Darkness" inspired the founder of Methodism, Charles Wesley, to write "Sun of Unclouded Righteousness" for missionaries working with "Mahometans". == Lyrics ==

The lyrics of "O'er the Gloomy Hills of Darkness" as published in Gloria in Excelsis: or hymns of praise to God and the lamb in 1772. 1. :O'er those gloomy Hills of Darkness :Look my Soul, be still and gaze, :All the Promises do travel :On a glorious Day of Grace, :Blessed Jubil, & c. :Let thy glorious Morning dawn. 2. :Let the Indian, let the Negro, :Let the rude Barbarian see :That divine and glorious Conquest :Once obtain'd on Calvary; :Let the Gospel, & c. :Word resound from Pole to Pole. 3. :Kingdoms wide that sit in Darkness, :Let them have the glorious Light, :And from Eastern Coast to Western :May the Morning chase the Night, :And Redemption, & c. :Freely purchas'd win the Day. 4. :May the glorious Days approaching, :From eternal Darkness dawn, :And the everlasting Gospel :Spread abroad thy holy Name. :Thousand Years, & c. :Soon appear, make no Delay. 5. :Lord, I long to see that Morning, :When thy Gospel shall abound, :And thy Grace get full Possession :Of the happy promis'd Ground; :All the Borders, & c. :Of the great Immanuel's Land. 6. :Fly abroad, eternal Gospel, :Win and conquer, never cease; :May thy eternal wide Dominions :Multiply, and still increase; :May thy Scepter, & c. :Sway th'enlight'ned World around. 7. :O let Moab yield and tremble, :Let Philistia never boast, :And let India proud be scatt'red :With their numerable Host; :And the Glory, &c. :Jesus only be to thee. == References ==