Abide with me! fast falls the eventide

Thank you.

This is a spirit-filled hymn that has not ceased to bring still to my heart since I've been rehearsing it. The Rev. Francis Henry Lyte was indeed a born hymnodist! May God continue to abide with him and all of us!

Fantastic hymn

6. 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
Abide with me, abide with me

Reverend Francis Lyte handed this hymn to a family member along with a tune he composed on the last day he preached to his congregation before going to be with the Lord.

It wasn’t until eight years later that Henry Ward Beecher introduced it to American Congregationalists, and fourteen years after his death that it began to be sung in England.

Before dying, Lyte wrote these words, the work of a dying man who had hoped he might not be “wholly mute and useless” while lying in his bed and who had prayed—

O Thou whose touch can lend

Life to the dead, The quickening grace supply,

And grant me swan-like my last breath to spend in song that may not die!

His prayer was answered by the Lord. Henry William Monk wrote the melody that propelled this hymn to great heights and revealed to the world its immortal value.

By the time it had gained recognition in England, it was tuneless and the compilers of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861) realized the need for a tune and asked Dr. Henry Monk, their music director, to write it. “In ten minutes, ” it is said, “Dr. Monk composed the sweet, pleading chant that is wedded permanently to Lyte’s swan song. ”

William Henry Monk, Doctor of Music, was born in London, 1823. His musical education began at an early age and was extensive. At the age of 26 he was organist and Choir Director in Kings College, London. Elected in 1876 to be professor of the National Training School, he became actively interested in popular musical education, delivering lectures around educational institutions and establishing choral services. His hymn-tunes are found in many song manuals of the English Church as well as Scotland and several have gone to America.

Dr. Monk died in 1889.

(Brown and Butterworth)

What a song of consolation!
What a song I love to hear!
What a song I love to sing!
Abide with me, abide with me.
Abide with me O Lord.
Abide with me forever and ever!

Thank you so much Adriel Lowe for adding the 6 th verse. A triumphant end to a beautiful hymn.

Nice

Verse 6
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.

This is such a wonderful soothing song dripping with scriptural assurances. Our God is a great God and Jesus came to ensure we understood, that God became flesh because of His desire to abide with you and me. Forever!

"when other helpers fail and comfort flees help of the helpless O! abide with me" my energy would expire, the arm of flesh would be confronted by its inadequacies but their is a lender of last resort. Never fails, ever present help. This assurance is all I need each day.