Abide with me

with EVENTIDE

I. Textual History

On 25 August 1847, Henry Francis Lyte (1793–1847) wrote a letter to family friend, Julia (most likely Eleanora Julia Bolton), describing his failing health and his intent to head south toward warmer climates:

Such is a sketch of my plans. How small a part of them may we be permitted to carry into execution! And yet it is right to form them, while we leave the rest to Him who does for us better than we could for ourselves. O for more of entire dependence on Him! entire confidence in Him! Not, I hope, that I am quite without these, but I want to feel them more a living principle of action. Conformity to the will and image of the Lord is no easy attainment, and it takes much hammering to bend us to it. I send you while on this subject a few lines which may interest you, as my latest effusion.

His “latest effusion” was the hymn “Abide with me,” included in the letter. A portion of the manuscript letter and hymn were reproduced in The Times, 1 Nov. 1947 (Fig. 1), in an article by Lyte’s great-grandson Walter Maxwell-Lyte.[1] Eleanora later married Henry Lyte’s son Farnham in 1851.

Lyte’s daughter, Anna Maria Maxwell Hogg, gave more context for the composition of this hymn in the preface of the Remains of the Late Rev. Henry Francis Lyte (London: Francis & John Rivington, 1850), pp. li–lii:

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 especial 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 often playfully to say, when in comparative health, “to wear out than to rust out.” He felt sure he should be enabled to fulfill 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, which is inserted last in this volume. He afterwards assisted at the administration of the Holy Eucharist, and though 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.

The sermon mentioned here was delivered on 4 September 1847, based on 1 Corinthians 11:16, and was included in the Remains, pp. 281–292. The “near and dear relative” was identified by Walter Maxwell-Lyte to be Henry Lyte’s daughter Anna, who wrote the account.[2] The hymn itself was inspired by 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.” KJV).

The hymn was printed as a leaflet in September 1847. Lyte died a few weeks later at Nice, France, on 20 November 1847. The text of the hymn was included in Lyte’s Remains (1850 | Fig. 2), in eight stanzas of four lines, without music.

Fig. 2. Remains of the Late Rev. Henry Francis Lyte (London: Francis & John Rivington, 1850).

One of Lyte’s handwritten manuscripts (different from the letter to Eleanora) was printed in facsimile in the front of The Poetical Works of Rev. H.F. Lyte, M.A. (London: Elliot Stock, 1907 | Fig. 3a), and its transcription appeared in that edition on pp. 35–36 (Fig. 3b), again without music. This version differs slightly from the version in Remains, including the second line of the first stanza, “the darkness thickens,” and the first two lines of the last stanza, “Hold Thou Thy cross,” and “Speak through the gloom.”

Fig. 3. The Poetical Works of Rev. H.F. Lyte, M.A. (London: Elliot Stock, 1907).

II. Analysis

Literary scholar and hymnologist J.R. Watson has noted how Lyte’s employment of the foundational Scripture passage, Luke 24:29, has layered meanings:

But the reading has to be metaphorical as well as literal. “It is toward evening, and the day is far spent” refers to the actual time, but is also a metaphor for life itself, for the end of the day of life, for the night which comes when no man can work, for the eventide, the time and tide that wait for no one. It is a reminder of the coming of darkness, of human loneliness and helplessness. In this situation, human beings become dependent on God, as a child looks to its mother or father when faced with the coming dark. . . .

The metaphor is made explicit at the beginning of verse 2. . . . Here “eventide” is not just the evening time but the evening tide, ebbing out at the end of life’s little day. It is an appropriate image for one who knew the sea as Lyte did, who lived by it and who was beloved by the fishermen who sailed on it. The sea becomes a potent reminder of the great rhythms of life, of the endless cycle of change, of growth and decay, as a tide comes in, reaches the full, and then ebbs.[3]

Hymnologist Erik Routley perceived the opening stanza as part of the rich interplay in the Bible between darkness and light, as in Psalm 139:11–12 and 1 John 1:5.[4] The repeated plea at the end of every stanza, “abide with me,” recalls Jesus’ discourse in John 15, in which he describes a two-way relationship, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” The second stanza draws attention to the fleeting nature of life, as in Job 14:1–2 (“Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not, ESV”).

In the third stanza, the author asks the Lord not simply to sojourn, to make a passing stay, but to abide, to tarry; or as literary scholar Anthony Esolen put it, “He longs for Christ the friend, who will not leave him alone in the wayside inn, awaiting death.”[5] The fourth stanza petitions the Saviour not to return in terror, as perhaps in Revelation 19:11–16, but to come with the healing wings as described in Malachi 4:2.

The fifth stanza speaks of God’s faithfulness in the midst of a person’s rebelliousness in youth, and so like the psalmist pleaded, “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!” (25:7, ESV). In the sixth, the writer asks the all-important question: who else could fill this role of protector and guide? 1 Corinthians 10:13 speaks of the one who will not let us be tempted beyond our ability. Isaiah 58:11 says “The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong” (ESV).

The seventh stanza, when the author boasts “I fear no foe,” he can do so because of statements like Hebrews 13:6 (“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”) or Romans 8:31 (“If God is for us, who can be against us”). How can tears have no bitterness? Because we do not grieve like those who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13; see also 2 Cor. 4:16–18). The third line of that stanza (“Where is death’s sting?”) is a direct reference to 1 Corinthians 15:55.

Finally, the eighth stanza looks upward. Regarding the first line, Frank Colquhoun clarified, “When Lyte—a convinced evangelical churchman—wrote ‘Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes,’ he was not thinking of a crucifix being held before him on his deathbed. He was asking for a vision of the crucified Saviour whose blood had atoned for his sins.”[6] Speaking more broadly, Erik Routley asserted:

So many hymns mention heaven in their last verses, and are wrongly despised for so doing. This one goes further. It looks death itself in the face. This is its most triumphant verse, its healthiest and most down-to-earth and most realistic verse: for the man who has never faced the enigma of death has never faced anything.[7]

III. Tunes

1. Henry Francis Lyte

Lyte’s text and tune were published together as sheet music in 1863 (Bristol: John Wright & Co.). This edition seems to be lost, but the tune was reprinted in The Musical Times in February 1908 (Fig. 4). 

2. EVENTIDE

The tune most commonly used in modern collections is EVENTIDE by William Henry Monk (1823–1889), written for this text for the first edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861 | Fig. 5).

There are two somewhat contradictory stories behind the composition of this tune. One, tracing as early as 1889, the year of Monk’s death, says:

He told a friend that when he (Dr. Monk) and the late Sir Henry Baker were once going out, they suddenly remembered that there was no tune for hymn 27, “Abide with me,” and that he sat down, and, undisturbed by the noise of a piano lesson which was then going on, wrote that excellent and popular tune in ten minutes.[8]

The number 27 is in reference to the 1875 edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern. Methodist scholar James T. Lightwood had corresponded with Monk’s widow, Annie Maria Monk, who supplied this brief story behind the tune:

The tune was written at a time of great sorrow—when together we watched, as we did daily, the glories of the setting sun. As the last golden ray faded, he took up some paper and pencilled that tune, which has gone all over the world.[9]

Wesley Milgate suggested perhaps Baker had met Monk at his home, as he sometimes did, and the remnants of that conversation drove Monk to compose the tune later in his wife’s presence,[10] but that conflation of stories would not explain the detail about being “undisturbed by the noise of a piano lesson,” unless Monk wrote the tune after the piano lesson when he was no longer disturbed. Alas, the full truth might never be known.

Hymn scholar Raymond Glover, in addressing the occasional criticism of sentimentality behind the tune, said:

The tune, perhaps the composer’s most characteristic, suffers ridicule more because of a slow, maudlin performance practice than from its qualities as a very simple, four-part hymn tune. A moving tempo with a feeling of two beats in a measure is to be encouraged.[11]

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
18 July 2018
rev. 13 August 2020

Footnotes:

1. Walter Maxwell-Lyte, “A famous hymn: New evidence on date of ‘Abide with me,’” The Times (1 Nov. 1947), p. 6; a portion of the letter had also been printed in Lyte’s Remains (1850), pp. cvii–cviii: Archive.org

2. Walter Maxwell-Lyte, “A famous hymn: New evidence on date of ‘Abide with me,’” The Times (1 Nov. 1947), p. 5.

3. J.R. Watson, The English Hymn (1997), pp. 351–352.

4. Erik Routley, “Abide with me,” Hymns and the Faith (1955), p. 170.

5. Anthony Esolen, Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Charlotte, NC: TAN Books, 2016), p. 231.

6. Frank Colquhoun, “Abide with me,” Hymns that Live (1980), p. 169.

7. Erik Routley, “Abide with me,” Hymns and the Faith (1955), p. 172.

8. R.E. Welsh & F.G. Edwards, Romance of Psalter and Hymnal (NY: James Pott & Co., 1889), p. 314: Archive.org

9. James T. Lightwood, “EVENTIDE,” The Music of the Methodist Hymn Book (London: Epworth Press, 1935), p. 496.

10. Wesley Milgate, Songs of the People of God (1982), p. 184.

11. Raymond Glover, “EVENTIDE,” Companion to the Hymnal 1982, vol. 3B (1994), p. 1215.

Related Resources:

Remains of the Late Rev. Henry Francis Lyte (London: Francis & John Rivington, 1850), pp. li–lii: Archive.org

John Julian, “Abide with me; fast falls the eventide,” A Dictionary of Hymnology (London, 1892), p. 7: Google Books

Louis Benson, “Abide with me; fast falls the eventide,” Studies of Familiar Hymns (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1903), pp. 169–178: Archive.org

“Church and Organ Music: Abide with Me,” The Musical Times, vol. 49, no. 780 (1 Feb. 1908), p. 99.

Walter Maxwell-Lyte, “A famous hymn: New evidence on date of ‘Abide with me,’” The Times (1 Nov. 1947), pp. 5–6.

Erik Routley, “Abide with me,” Hymns and the Faith (London: J. Murray, 1955), pp. 169–173.

Frank Colquhoun, “Abide with me,” Hymns that Live (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980), pp. 163–170.

Fred L. Precht, “Abide with me,” Lutheran Worship Hymnal Companion (St. Louis: Concordia, 1992), pp. 500–501.

Raymond Glover, “EVENTIDE,” Companion to the Hymnal 1982, vol. 3B (NY: Church Hymnal Corp., 1994), pp. 1214–1215.

J.R. Watson, The English Hymn (Oxford: University Press, 1997), pp. 350–354.

J.R. Watson, “Abide with me; fast falls the eventide,” An Annotated Anthology of Hymns (Oxford: University Press, 2002), pp. 273–275.

Samuel J. Rogal, Abide with Me, Fast Fall the Eventide (1847): A Sung Prayer of the Christian Tradition (Edwin Mellen, 2010): Amazon

Robert Cottrill, “Abide with me,” Wordwise Hymns (16 Sept. 2011): https://wordwisehymns.com/2011/09/16/abide-with-me/

Anthony Esolen, Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Charlotte, NC: TAN Books, 2016), pp. 230–233.

Carl P. Daw Jr., “Abide with me,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), pp. 797–798.

Leland Ryken, “Abide with me,” 40 Favorite Hymns on the Christian Life (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2019), pp. 81–83: Amazon

Martin V. Clarke, “Abide with me,” Sing with Understanding, 3rd ed., edited by C. Michael Hawn (Chicago: GIA, 2022), pp. 303–304.

Rajini Vaidyanathan, “Beating Retreat: British hymn ‘Abide with Me’ causing a stir in India,” BBC News (29 Jan. 2022): https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-60123219

Leon Litvack, “Abide with me; fast falls the eventide,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/a/abide-with-me-fast-falls-the-eventide

“Abide with me; fast falls the eventide,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/abide_with_me_fast_falls_the_eventide

“Abide with me,” with tune by Justin Smith, Indelible Grace Hymn Book:
http://hymnbook.igracemusic.com/hymns/abide-with-me