Anne Ross Cousin - Legacy

Legacy

Some of her hymns, especially The Sands of Time are Sinking, are known and sung over the English-speaking world. This poem was inspired by Samuel Rutherford's last words and when first published in the 1860s was followed by extracts from his works. It had the title: Last words of Reverend Samuel Rutherford: with some of his sweet sayings, but is more commonly known by the phrase, Immanuel's Land, repeated at the end of each stanza. A collection of her poems, Immanuel's Land and Other Pieces, was published in 1876 under her initials A.R.C., by which she was most widely known.

The first verse of Immanuel's Land is:

The sands of time are sinking, the dawn of Heaven breaks;

The summer morn I’ve sighed for — the fair, sweet morn awakes:

Dark, dark hath been the midnight, but dayspring is at hand,

And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

In this context, Immanuel is used as a name of Christ. The original poem has nineteen verses, but only a few of them appear in most hymnaries.