Abide with me

Luke 24:29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.

1. 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.

2. Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;

Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away.

Change and decay in all around I see.

O thou who changest not, abide with me.

3. Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word,

But as thou dwell’st with thy disciples, Lord,

Familiar, condescending, patient, free.

Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.

4. Come not in terror, as the King of kings,

But kind and good, with healing in thy wings;

Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea.

Come, Friend of sinners, thus abide with me.

5. Thou on my head in early youth didst smile,

And though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,

Thou hast not left me, oft as I left thee.

On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

6. I need thy presence every passing hour.

What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?

Who like thyself my guide and strength can be?

Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

7. 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.

8. 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 hymn by Henry Francis Lyte derives its idea from Luke 24:49. Hymnologist J. R. Watson writes, “Lyte’s genius takes the quotation and turns it into a metaphor for human life in all of its brevity. At the same time, by changing ‘Abide with us’ into ‘Abide with me,’ he deepens the feeling by making it speak to the individual, in prayer or meditation.” (“Henry Francis Lyte: Bicentenary Reflections,” Bulletin of the Hymn Society, 198 Vol. 14, No. 1, January 1994)

Lyte’s daughter, Anna Maria Maxwell Hogg, in a memoir of her father told the following story of “Abide with Me”:

“The summer was passing away, and the month of September (that month in which he was once more to quit his native land) arrived, and each day seemed to have a special value as being one day nearer his departure. His family were surprised and almost alarmed at his announcing his intention of preaching once more to his people. His weakness and the possible danger attending the effort, were urged to prevent it, but in vain. ‘It was better,’ as he used to say often playfully, when in comparative health, ‘to wear out than to rust out.’ He felt that he should be enabled to fulfil his wish, and feared not for the result. His expectation was well founded. He did preach, and amid the breathless attention of his hearers, gave them the sermon on the Holy Communion…He afterwards assisted at the administration of the Holy Eucharist, and thought necessarily much exhausted by the exertion and excitement of this effort, yet his friends had no reason to believe it had been hurtful to him. In the evening of the same day he placed in the hands of a near and dear relative the little hymn, ‘Abide with Me,’ with an air of his own composing, adapted to the words.” (as repeated in The Musical Times, Volume 49, January 1, 1908, p. 25)

Some have suggested the hymn was written years earlier after he sat with a dying man, and then simply recalled it at the time near his own demise. Perhaps it was at or near this time he wrote the tune for it. Though Lyte wrote a tune for the hymn, the tune to which it is sung most is Eventide by William Henry Monk – to which it was attached in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861).

The hymn is meditation or a prayer to God, a heartfelt desire for his presence at all times, but especially at the end of life. God is the unchanging helper of the helpless, who is our guide and stay. He is victorious over death, rung out in the next to last stanza referencing 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” Of the original eight stanzas, those most commonly used in hymn books are those stanzas bolded above (1, 2, 5, 7, 8).

Henry Francis Lyte was born in Kelso, Scotland, on June 1, 1793. He was an Anglican minister. Much of his life he suffered from poor health. Because of this he made regular trips to various places for relief. He died in Nice, France, on November 20, 1847 at age 54. The English Prize Poem was awarded to Lyte three times.

Henry Lyte published several books of religious poetry, including The Spirit of the Psalms, Or, the Psalms of David Adapted to Christian Worship.