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; its 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 Lyte wrote this hymn as he was dying of tuberculosis. He finished the song on the Sunday he was delivering his farewell sermon to his church. He was going to travel to Italy to receive treatment for his illness. He did not make it to Italy and died three weeks after he left his church. Here is an excerpt from his fare­well ser­mon:

“O breth­ren, I stand here among you to­day, as alive from the dead, if I may hope to impress it upon you, and in­duce you to pre­pare for that sol­emn hour which must come to all, by a time­ly ac­quaint­ance with the death of Christ.”

The song is a song of hope. It’s a prayer for God to stay with us in our worst times, in the times when we lose our jobs, when we lose our faith, when we lay at death’s door. The song took on a new meaning for me when I was sick; to the point of death. I particularly love the last the verse of the song. Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes of death to shine me through the gloom of death dark light and point me to the heavenly skies above. Death is not escapable and neither is the work of Christians. While we all die we still all have a life to live and to live that life fully to the Gospel of Christ.

“Behold the life giving cross on which hung the Salvation of the world. Oh Come let us Worship him.”