Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Day is dying

Conjubilant With Song provides a 19th century hymn by Mary Artemesia Lathbury, Day is Dying in the West. It has a certain sentimental appeal to me because I remember singing it at church camp and vesper services when young. The site notes that "Evening hymns are sung by a shrinking number of congregations each year, but this one is still the opening hymn at each Sunday night service at the Chautauqua Institution, with which Lathbury was long associated and where she wrote this text." She also wrote Break Thou the Bread of Life.
Day is dying in the west;
Heav’n is touching earth with rest;
Wait and worship while the night
Sets the evening lamps alight
Through all the sky.

Refrain:
Holy, holy, holy, O God of Hosts!
Heav’n and earth are full of Thee!
Heav’n and earth are praising Thee,
O Lord most high!


Lord of life, beneath the dome
Of the universe, Thy home,
Gather us who seek Thy face
To the fold of Thy embrace,
For Thou art nigh.
Refrain

While the deepening shadows fall,
Heart of love enfolding all,
Through the glory and the grace
Of the stars that veil thy face,
Our hearts ascend.
Refrain

When forever from our sight
Pass the stars, the day, the night,
God of angels, on our eyes
Let eternal morning rise
And shadows end.
Refrain
Conjubilant With Song: Mary Artemesia Lathbury, Hymntime: Day Is Dying in the West

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