"Come away to the Skies" is sung to several tunes in various hymnals. The lyrics are by Charles Wesley. It was written on the anniversary of the birth of his wife, Oct. 12, 1755 and published in his Hymns for Families, 1767, In 1780 it was included in the Wesleyan Hymn Book and has been retained in all subsequent editions of that collection. It is also given in other collections of the Methodist body, and in a few American hymnals. The tune given here is "Middlebury", a tune that, played slowly, is a lovely hymn tune. I can find no evidence that the tune was used for any other purpose but, played at a quicker tempo, it becomes a lively, almost a dance, tune. The hymn appears in The Southern Harmony three times using the tunes "Rapture", "Exultation" and (this tune) "Middlebury".