EARLY ADVENT
SDAH 450
Beautiful Zion, built above,
Beautiful city that I love,
Beautiful gates of pearly white,
Beautiful temple, God its light.
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For Worship Leaders
Make each hymn more meaningful with these helpful tools: Short, ready-to-use hymn introductions for church bulletins, multiple ways to introduce a hymn based on your worship theme and in-depth history and insights to enrich your song service.
Hymn Spotlight: Beautiful Zion
This hymn first appeared in the U.S. in 1858 in Tidings of Joy and was reprinted the same year by James White in his Supplement to the Advent and Sabbath Hymn Book. Though the author “Gill” remains unknown, its theme is unmistakable—anticipation of heaven’s glories. Wayne Hooper’s arrangement draws from James White’s 1869 Hymns and Tunes, pairing the hopeful words with music that invites believers to lift their hearts toward the kingdom Christ has prepared.
📖 Reference: Feel free to share but please cite hymnsforworship.org when reproducing.
Introductions for Sabbath School Song Service (based on specific lesson quarterlies):
The first time this hymn about the glories of heaven appears in an American hymnal is in Tidings of Joy, published by D. E. Dortch, Columbia, Tennessee, in 1858. In that book the author is given as Gill. Nothing is known about him. That same year, James White printed the hymn without any author’s name in his Supplement to the Advent and Sabbath Hymn Book. Scores of hymnals used it up to the year 1914; then it faded out, being included in hymnals only three more times, 1927, 1935, and 1954.
The arrangement by Wayne Hooper (1920-2017) is based on the music James White printed in his Hymns and Tunes for Those Who Keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus, 1869.
📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.
Text
1
Beautiful Zion, built above,
Beautiful city that I love,
Beautiful gates of pearly white,
Beautiful temple, God its light.
2
Beautiful trees forever there,
Beautiful fruit they always bear,
Beautiful rivers gliding by,
Beautiful fountains never dry.
3
Beautiful crowns on every brow,
Beautiful palms the conquerors show,
Beautiful robes the ransomed wear,
Beautiful all who enter there.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(a) Rev 21:2, 21, 22 (b) Rev 22:2 (c) Rev 4:4, 7:9
Author
Anonymous
Copyright
Arrangement copyright 1984 by Wayne Hooper
Metrical Number
L.M.
Arranged
Wayne Hooper, 1984 (1920-2001)
Tune Source
from Hymns and Tunes…, 1869
Recommended Reading
Miller gained a huge following which came to be called, the ‘Millerites.’ Great Tent meetings were set up, and the progressing movement saw the need to provide new hymns. Sure, they had songs that they were singing from the churches they belonged to, but none that supported the distinct messages that was being preached such as the judgment, second advent, reward of the saints and the midnight cry. As a result, hymns were compiled and the first Millerite hymnal was born.
