He had struggled with serious health issues for some time (tuberculosis). Despite that, Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847) served as a faithful gospel preacher and evangelist and as a diligent and loving pastor. But knowing that death was drawing near, he penned the words to a marvelous hymn, “Abide with Me, Fast Falls the Eventide.” It was sung a few weeks later for the first time at his funeral! He is best remembered for that hymn, along with “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven” and “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken.” “Abide with Me” is usually found in hymnals in the section of hymns for the evening. But a closer look at the text reveals that the focus is not on the evening of the day, but on the evening of our lives! We’ll see that when we examine the lyrics.
Lyte was born near Kelso, Scotland, the son of a man described as a “ne’er do-well” who was more interested in fishing and shooting than in dealing with his family responsibilities. He deserted the family after making arrangements for his two oldest sons to attend Portora Royal School in Ulster. Francis’ mother moved to London where she and her youngest son died. The headmaster at the school recognized Henry’s abilities, paid the boy’s fees, and welcomed him into his own family during the holidays, virtually adopting him.
After studying at Trinity College, Dublin, and with very little training for the ministry, Henry was ordained in the Anglican church in 1815. For a short time he held a curacy near Wexford. Until 1816, his sense of ministerial vocation was vague. But in that year he experienced a genuine conversion to saving faith in Christ. It is reported that while attending to a dying priest, that man convinced Henry that they had both been mistaken in not having taken the Epistles of Paul “in their plain and literal sense.” That resulted in Lyte’s earnest study of the Bible and determination to preach the Bible in an entirely different manner, “following the example of four or five local clergyman whom he had previously laughed at and considered ‘enthusiastic rhapsodists.’”
In 1817, Lyte became a curate in Cornwall, where he met and married Anne Maxwell, the daughter of a well-known and affluent Scottish-Irish family.. She was seven years older than he, and a “keen Methodist.” She contributed her family fortune to their well-being. They raised two daughters and three sons. In April 1824, after serving a parish just five miles from the sea, they left for Lower Brixham, a Devon fishing village.
It was there that his ministry flourished. He established the first Sunday School in the region, one that combined basic education with Bible instruction, and served both seamen and children. Each year he organized an Annual Treat for the 800-1000 Sunday School children. His preaching and pastoral ministry attracted such large crowds that the church building had to be enlarged. He connected with the hearts and minds of people in his parish of fishermen, visiting them in their homes and onboard their ships in the harbor. He provided every vessel with a Bible, and compiled songs and devotions for them at sea. He embraced a solidly evangelical theology, preaching the sinfulness of the human heart and the need for forgiveness by trusting in the atoning death of the Lord Jesus. He frequently rose at 6:00 am and prayed for several hours before breakfast! He was a friend of Samuel Wilberforce in John Newton’s parish in London, and shared their sentiments about ending the slave trade. Though he came to identify with some in the high church Oxford Movement, he never lost his confidence in the truthfulness of the Word of God and his desire to preach Christ to the lost that they might have eternal life in Him.
Lyte suffered various respiratory illness throughout his life and often visited continental Europe seeking treatment. Increasingly debilitating asthma and bronchitis eventually led to tuberculosis. At the age of just 46, Lyte wrote a poem entitled “Declining Days.” By the 1840s he was spending much of his time in the warmer climate of France and Italy. He suffered increasing weakness and incessant coughing spasms. Medical treatments of blistering, bleeding, calomel, tartar emetic, and large doses of Prussic acid failed to bring relief. Despite all of that, friends found him buoyant, cheerful, and keenly interested in current events.
He spent the summer of 1847 at Berry Head, on the coast east of Brixham, and then after one final sermon to his congregation on the subject of Holy Communion, he left again for Italy. His daughter remembers his desire to preach again, having often said in times of better health, “I would rather wear out than rust out.” It was about that time that he wrote the hymn, “Abide with Me, Fast Falls the Eventide,” after taking a walk on the beach. He died on November 20 of that year in Nice, where he was buried. His last words, while pointing his hand heavenward, were “Peace! Joy!” He was only 54 years old, and had served the Brixham congregation for 24 years. The hymn became a favorite of George V and George VI. In the Rugby league, the hymn has been sung before the Challenge Cup final since 1929, the first year the match was staged at Wembly Stadium.
As we’ve seen, though the hymn is usually found in the section of hymns for the evening in our hymnals today, that was not what was on Lyte’s mind as he penned the words. He knew that he was approaching the evening of his life. And many have also recognized the connection with Luke 24:29 as Jesus met the disciples on the road to Emmaus. As the day was drawing to its close, they had not realized it was Jesus, but were still so enchanted by His company that they asked Him to stay with them. “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.” We find those very words in the final phrase of each stanza of Lyte’s hymn, “Abide with me.”
In stanza 1, we imagine the light fading from the sight in those final moments of life. Many of us have been at the bedside of a loved one or friend as death was drawing near. For the believer, the prayer that dominates his or her thinking in those moments is that the Lord would stay near, even as “other helpers fail and comforts flee.” In those moments of total helplessness, our prayer, too, will be that the Lord would abide with us.
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.
In stanza 2, the context of the approach of death becomes unmistakably clear. It’s not the light of the sun as it dims at twilight, but the light of physical life that grows dim in those final hours before the last breath and the last heartbeat. “Earth’s joys” grow dim, whether memories of family or of career or of vacations. Though “change and decay” crowd in on us, the Lord never changes, and will not abandon us in those hours as our souls prepare to be with Him forever.
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.
At this point, Lyte’s original text included the following stanza, matching Jesus’ visit with the Emmaus Road disciples as well as with our death-bed longing. We long not for a brief moment to “sojourn” with Him, a mere “passing word,” but a lasting abiding presence.
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.
The next stanza, also omitted from most hymnals today, assures us that at the end of the life of the believer, Jesus will come as “the King of kings,” not in the terror of judgment and punishment, but “with healing in Thy wings,” and as “Friend of sinners.”
Come not in terrors, 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, and thus abide with me.
Yet another of the original stanzas adds additional thoughts of dying comfort. The same Savior who blessed us in our youth will abide with us at the end. Though we may have occasionally left Him, He will never leave us.
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.
In stanza 3, we face one of the reasons we need Him to abide with us. It’s in those times of weakness in our lives that we are especially susceptible to the tempter’s power, to Satan’s effort to take advantage of those moments when our faith is liable to fail. But God’s grace, which has guided us throughout our life, will still be there, “through cloud and sunshine,” to carry us all the way home and keep us from succumbing to those temptations.
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.
In stanza 4, a more confident theme is expressed. Because I am sure that He is present to bless me, “I fear no foe.” Ills do have weight, and tears do bring bitterness, but they will not take hold of my heart as long as I remember that He is “at hand.” Reflecting Paul’s words at the end of the great resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, death has lost its sting and the grave has lost its victory. The result is that in Christ, “I triumph still.”
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.
In stanza 5, we sing that it’s not just sentimental thoughts about Jesus, but specific thoughts about the cross which give us this security in the face of death. It’s because of what He did at Calvary that death no longer has power over us. It’s the cross of Jesus “before my closing eyes” that will “shine through the gloom.” That day will come for each of us when “earth’s vain shadows flee” and “heaven’s morning breaks.” How will we greet that day? The same way we have greeted every day, for “in life, in death,” the Lord abides with us.
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.
As one writer has expressed it,
The poem is lovely in both language and sentiment—but it seems odd that a hymn about death could become as popular as this one. But on closer observation, the reason seems clear. This hymn speaks to us, not only about death, but also about life. It assures us of God’s presence and help in life and in death. As it says in the last line of the last verse:
“In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.”
“In life, in death!” It is not just in death that we need the Lord, but in life as well. And so, when we sing this hymn, we repeat again and again, “Abide with me”—a prayer for God’s presence and a prayer for God’s help.
We sing the hymn to the tune EVENTIDE, sometimes named MONK after its composer, William Henry Monk (1823 – 1889). He was an English organist, church musician, and music editor, including several editions of the British volume, “Hymns Ancient and Modern”. He composed more than fifty hymn tunes as well as many pieces of choral music for Anglican services.
Here you can hear a congregation and choir singing this wonderful hymn:
And as a bonus, here is a 20-minute video about Lyte and his ministry in Brixham, filmed apparently in the late 1940s.