5 O Saviour Christ, thou too art Ma..;

Thou hast been troubled, tempted, tried; Thy kind but searching glance can scan The very wounds that shame would hide.

6 Thy touch has still its ancient power,
No word from thee can fruitless fall;
Hear in this solemn evening hour,
And in thy mercy heal us all.

Henry Twells.

3

"Evening" is the title which this hymn 2 bears in the appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1868, for which it was written at the request of the author's friend, Sir Henry Baker, who thought there was a special need for an evening hymn in the collection which he was making. It is based on Mark i. 32, “At even when the 4 sun did set they brought unto him all that were diseased," and Luke iv. 40: "Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them."

The first line of this hymn has been criticised in its form of statement, and has been published in an altered form, "When the sun was set," or, When the sun did set," being substituted for "e'er the sun was set." Those who made this criticism contended that inasmuch as it was unlawful among the Jews for a gathering of diseased persons to be held before the sun had gone down and the Sabbath had ended, the proposed change was necessary if the opening line of the hymn was to be accurate. Canon Twells, while allowing Prebendary Thring and others to make the proposed change for their use, yet de fended his own form of expression as entirely consistent with both Mark and Luke. (See The Literary Churchman for June 9 and 23, 1882.) Two stanzas have been omitted:

And some are pressed with worldly care, And some are tried with sinful doubt; And some such grievous passions tear,

That only thou canst cast them out.

8s, 7s.

AVIOUR, breathe an evening blessing, Ere repose our spirits seal;

Sin and want we come confessing:

Thou canst save, and thou canst heal.

Though destruction walk around us,
Though the arrows past us fly,
Angel guards from thee surround us;
We are safe, if thou art nigh.
Though the night be dark and dreary,
Darkness cannot hide from thee;
Thou art he who, never weary,
Watchest where thy people be.

Should swift death this night o'ertake us,
And our couch become our tomb,
May the morn in heaven awake us,
Clad in light and deathless bloom.

James Edmeston.

7, 7, 7, 5.

OLY Father, cheer our way

loves perpetual ray;

Grant us every closing day
Light at evening time.

2 Holy Saviour, calm our fears
When earth's brightness disappears;
Grant us in our later years
Light at evening time.

3 Holy Spiri✦ be thou nigh
When in mortal pains we lie;
Grant us, as we come to die,
Light at evening time.

4 Holy, blessèd Trinity,
Darkness is not dark to thee;
Those thou keepest always see
Light at evening time.

Richard H. Robinson.

Heaven is touching earth with rest: Wait and worship while the night Sets her evening lamps alight

Through all the sky.

Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Hosts! Heaven and earth are full of thee! Heaven and earth are praising thee, O Lord most high!

The light and darkness are of his disposing,

And 'neath his shadow here to rest we yield us,

For he will shield us,

2 Let evil thoughts and spirits flee before us;

Till morning cometh, watch, O Master, o'er us;

In soul and body thou from harm defend us, Thine angels send us.

3 Let holy thoughts be o'ertakes us;

ours

when sleep

Our earliest thoughts be thine when morning wakes us.

All sick and mourners we to thee commend them,

Do thou befriend them.

4 We have no refuge, none on earth to aid us But thee, O Father, who thine own hast made us.

Keep us in life; forgive our sins; deliver Us now and ever.

5 Praise be to thee through Jesus our salvation,

God, Three in One, the ruler of creation, High throned, o'er all thine eye of mercy casting,

Lord everlasting.

Petrus Herbert.

Tr. by Catherine Winkworth. Alt. This hymn is said to have been written under "the pressure of persecution and oppression." Its first appearance was in a German hymn book in 1566 in five stanzas of seven lines each. The translation here given was first published in Miss Winkworth's Choral Book for England, 1863, and is reproduced in her Christian Singers of Germany, 1869. The third stanza above is made up of the first two lines of the third stanza and the second two lines of the fourth stanza as found in Miss Winkworth's Christian Singers, with some verbal alterations. To the original five stanzas, it seems, a poetic version of the Lord's Prayer and of the doxology was added as a sixth and seventh stanza, respectively. The Lord's Prayer is found in Miss Winkworth's translation, but is

in Miss Winkworth's translation.

59

6s, 5s.

day is over,

Night is drawing nigh;

Shadows of the evening

Steal across the sky;

2 Jesus, grant the weary

Calm and sweet repose;
With thy tenderest blessing
May our eyelids close.

3 Grant to little children

Visions bright of thee;
Guard the sailors tossing
On the deep, blue sea.
4 Comfort every sufferer
Watching late in pain;
Those who plan some evil
From their sins restrain.

5 Through the long night watches
May thine angels spread
Their white wings above me,
Watching round my bed.

6 When the morning wakens, Then may I arise

Pure, and fresh, and sinless

In thy holy eyes.

While earth rolls onward into light, Through all the world her watch is keeping, And rests not now by day or night.

3 As o'er each continent and island
The dawn leads on another day,
The voice of prayer is never silent,
Nor dies the strain of praise away.

4 So be it, Lord; thy throne shall never,
Like earth's proud empires, pass away;
But stand, and rule, and grow forever,
Till all thy creatures own thy sway.
John Ellerton.

Written in 1870 to be used as a "Liturgy for Missionary Meetings," after which it was revised and published in Church Hymns, 1871. An anonymous hymn in Church Poetry, 1855, has as its first line the identical words with which this hymn begins. The continuity of the sunlight, advancing ever forward with the revolving earth, is here used in an expressive and beautiful manner as a symbol of the continuity of spiritual worship and of evangelizing agencies that are always at work and moving forward in the world.

4 The weary world is moldering to decay,
Its glories wane, its pageants fade away;
In that last sunset when the stars shall fall,
May we arise awakened by thy call,
With thee, O Lord, forever to abide
In that blest day which has no eventide.
Christopher Wordsworth.

Title: "Evening." A hymn of real merit, especially adapted to close an evening service. It was written in 1863 and published in the author's Holy Year, third edition, 1863.

62

THE

C. M. D.

'HE shadows of the evening hours
Fall from the darkening sky;
Upon the fragrance of the flowers

The dews of evening lie.

Before thy throne, O Lord of heaven,
We kneel at close of day;
Look on thy children from on high,
And hear us while we pray.

2 The sorrows of thy servants, Lord,
O do not thou despise,
But let the incense of our prayers
Before thy mercy rise.

The brightness of the coming night
Upon the darkness rolls;
With hopes of future glory chase
The shadows from our souls.

3 Slowly the rays of daylight fade:
So fade within our heart
The hopes in earthly love and joy,
That one by one depart.
Slowly the bright stars, one by one,
Within the heavens shine:

Give us, O Lord, fresh hopes in heaven,
And trust in things divine.

4 Let peace, O Lord, thy peace, O God,
Upon our souls descend;

From midnight fears, and perils, thou
Our trempling hearts defend.
Give us a respite from our toil;

Calm and subdue our woes;
Through the long day we labor, Lord,
O give us now repose.

Adelaide A. Procter. "Evening" is the title of this hymn in the enlarged edition of the author's Legends and Lyrics, published in 1862.

A very fine and poetic prayer-song, worthy of frequent use in evening worship. It well illustrates the truth that poetic figure is not incompatible with hymnic merit.

COME

In hymns around the throne! This is the day our rising Lord

Hath made and called his own.

2 This is the day which God hath blest, The brightest of the seven, Type of that everlasting rest

The saints enjoy in heaven.

3 Then let us in his name sing on, And hasten to that day

When our Redeemer shall come down,
And shadows pass away.

4 Not one, but all our days below,
Let us in hymns employ;
And in our Lord rejoicing, go
To his eternal joy.

Charles Wesley.

Title: "For the Lord's Day." Unaltered and entire from Hymns for Chil dren, 1763. The preface to this booklet contained the following paragraph:

There are two ways of writing or speaking to children: the one is to let ourselves down to them; the other, to lift them up to us. Dr. Watts has written in the former way, and has succeeded admirably well, speaking to children as children and leaving them as he found them. The following hymns are written on the other plan: they contain strong and manly sense, yet expressed in such plain and easy language as even children may understand. But when they do understand them, they will be children no longer only in years and in stature.

History shows that this philosophy is erroneous. The man who would communicate with children must humble himself to the child's understanding. Dr. Watts's method was vastly successful. No man can estimate the influence of his Divine Songs for Children on generations of youth. The man who wrote for adults, Wide as the world is thy command, Vast as eternity thy love,

wrote for little children:

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower.

The Wesleyan "plan" was a failure. The

Author's title: "The Lord's Day; or, Delight in Ordinances." From Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707. The original of the third stanza, lines one and two, is:

One day amidst the place

Where my dear God hath been.

The third stanza appropriates very beautifully the thought of the Psalmist: "For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." (Ps. lxxxiv.

3 Spirit of grace! O deign to dwell Within thy church below; Make her in holiness excel,

With pure devotion glow.

4 Let peace within her walls be found; Let all her sons unite,

To spread with holy zeal around
Her clear and shining light.

5 Great God, we hail the sacred day Which thou hast called thine own; With joy the summons we obey

To worship at thy throne.

Harriet Auber.

This is based on Psalm cxxii.: "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord," ctc. Three lines have been altered.

In verse two, line two, the author wrote:

Where willing votaries throng.

Verse two, line four:

And pour the choral song.

Verse four, line three:

To spread with grateful zeal around. The last stanza is practically a repetition of the first, and was made by some hymn editor.

From The Spirit of the Psalms, London,

2 Lord, in this sacred hour

Within thy courts we bend,

And bless thy love, and own thy power, Our Father and our Friend.

3 But thou art not alone

In courts by mortals trod;
Nor only is the day thine own
When man draws near to God:

4 Thy temple is the arch

Of yon unmeasured sky;

Thy Sabbath, the stupendous march
Of vast eternity.

5 Lord, may that holier day

Dawn on thy servants' sight; And purer worship may we pay In heaven's unclouded light. Stephen G. Bulfinch.