Hymn of the Week: August 3, 2020

Hymn of the Week: 

Abide With Me

836 in Glory to God

Text by Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847)
Music by William F Monk (1823-1889)

Abide With Me
Abide With Me: fast falls the eventide.
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide!
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; it’s glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see.
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

I need thy presence every passing hour;
What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

Henry Francis Lyte was born in Scotland in 1793 and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, and was a lifelong member of the Church of England. He was a well-known poet, minister, and musician who simultaneously suffered from intense bouts of asthma and tuberculosis. He served as a minister at several churches throughout England and wherever he served, he was deeply loved by his congregation and he worked tirelessly despite his frail health. He spent his final 23 years pastoring a poor parish among fishing people in Devonshire, England.

His health became so bad that he was finally instructed to travel to Italy and warmer climes for his health. On the day of his last sermon on September 4, 1847, it is said that he almost crawled to the pulpit he was so weak to deliver his final homily. On his way to Italy, he stopped in Nice, France where he then passed. He is buried in an English cemetery in Nice on November 20, 1847. It is thought that he wrote the text for this now timeless hymn just before he preached his final sermon.

The text was not widely known in England. It did briefly appear in a book titled; Lyte’s Remains 1850. The first appearance is made in America was through the incredibly famous preacher, Henry Ward Beecher. (brother to Harriet Stowe). The text appeared in Rev. Beecher’s Plymouth Collection in 1855. In this collection, it was stipulated that this text should be read and not sung. This text was later discovered by William Monk, who was the music editor of the Anglican Hymnal; Hymns Ancient and Modern where it had made it into the hymnal in 1861. It is said that Monk composed the tune that we know as

EVENTIDE in less than half an hour. The story goes that he was inspired by a beautiful sunset. How often are we inspired by God’s grandeur?

Enjoy Susan Larson’s beautiful violin solo of this Brent Olstad arrangement.