Awake, our drowsy souls

Awake, our drowsy souls. Elizabeth Scott. [Sunday.] Written by Elizabeth Scott, this Lord's Day morning hymn was first published in Caleb Evans and John Ash's Baptist Collection (Bristol, 1769, No. 307) in 5 stanzas of 6 lines. It was appointed specifically as "A hymn for Lord's Day Morning." Though included in several early collections such as Rippon's and Dobell's, Scott's original text became virtually unknown in modern British hymnals, though it retained a place in older American collections.

The hymn achieved immense enduring popularity through a four-stanza recast made by Thomas Cotterill for the first edition of his Selection of Psalms and Hymns (1810), beginning "Awake, ye saints, awake, / And hail the sacred day." In this recast, Cotterill retained Scott's third stanza almost verbatim while revising the rest. This joint form ("Elizabeth Scott and Thomas Cotterill") became widely adopted throughout Great Britain and America. Additional variations derived from Cotterill's text include "Servants of God, awake" in Church Hymns (1871), "Children of God, awake" in the Evangelical Association Hymnal (1881), and "Come, sons of God, awake" in the Marlborough College Hymns (1869).