Under the title “Second Advent,” this hymn was first printed in a book of hymns by John MacDuff, Altar Stones, 1853. He prefaced it by a quotation from Revelation 1:7, “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him,” and from Revelation 22:20, “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” MacDuff obviously believed in the premillennial second coming of Christ as a literal event, just as Seventh-day Adventists do. This scripturally based hymn held a place in many older denominational hymnbooks, but it has been left out of modern hymnals because of widely held views that the Second Coming happens when Christ comes into our lives and universal love fills the hearts of everyone. For example, “Christ Is Coming” was in the Methodist Hymnal, 1905, but was deleted in the 1933 and 1964 editions.

   John Ross MacDuff was born May 23, 1818, at Bonhard, Perthshire, Scotland. He went to the University of Edinburgh and studied three years under the famous Thomas Chalmers, who influenced him to give his life to the gospel ministry. He did not go along with Disruption in 1843, when secession from the state church resulted in the formation of the Free Church of Scotland, but was ordained in 1842 by the Established Church of Scotland. After serving several small parishes, he was given a magnificent new church with a large congregation at Sandyford, a part of Glasgow, where he stayed for 15 years. He declined an offer from the Crown to go to the Cathedral Church in Glasgow, and in 1871 gave up his pastoral duties to devote his entire time to literary pursuits. Among his very successful books are Faithful Promise, Morning and Night Watches, and The Mind and Words of Jesus. A definitive book of his hymn texts, Gates of Praise, was published in 1875. He was a member of the hymnal committee of the Church of Scotland, and honorary D.D. degrees were conferred on him by the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and New York. He died at Chislehurst, Kent, England, on April 30, 1895.

 CWM RHONDDA is one of the most used of the great Welsh tunes, and has been very popular in America. Cwm is Welsh for valley, and Rhondda is the name of the river the runs through the heart of the coal-mining area of south Wales. The tune was written by John Hughes for a Baptist singing festival held at Capel Rhondda, Pontypridd, Wales, about 1905. The Welsh name for the hymn singing festival is Cymanfa Ganu; it is still a much-loved event in Wales, United States, and Canada.

John Hughes was born November 22, 1873, at Dowlais, Wales, but in his first year his parents moved to the mining village of Llantwitfarder, south of Pontypridd in Galmorganshire. Here he spent his life, first as a doorboy at a coal mine, and later in traffic department of the Great Western Colliery Company. He was an active member of Salem Baptist Church at Llantwitfarder all his life, and followed his father as deacon and precentor (leader of the singing) Even though he had no formal music training that we know of, his natural musical gift resulted in the writing of several hymn tunes, anthems, and Sunday school songs. He died May 14, 193.

 CWM RHONDDA is also used, in key one-half step lower, for SDAH 415 and 538

-from Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White