Abide With Me

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This article is about the Christian hymn. For other uses, see Abide With Me (disambiguation).

Abide With Me is a well-known Christian hymn composed by Henry Francis Lyte in 1847, though the lyrics are usually sung to William Henry Monk's melody Eventide rather than Lyte's original music. It is popular across many denominations, and was said to be a favourite of King George V and Mahatma Gandhi. It was sung at both the wedding of King George VI and that of his daughter, who would go on to become Queen Elizabeth II. Since 1927 it has been sung before the kick-off at the FA Cup Final and Challenge Cup Final. It is also often sung at Christian funerals.

Lyte wrote the words to his poem while he lay dying from tuberculosis, and lived only three weeks after its completion.

The hymn is sung at the annual Anzac Day services in Australia and New Zealand^[1], and in some Remembrance Day services in Canada^[2] and the United Kingdom. It is also played by the combined bands of the Indian Defence Forces during the annual Beating Retreat ceremony held on 29th January. A choral version of this hymn has been arranged by Moses Hogan.

1 Lyrics
2 Tune
3 In Films and Television
4 References

[edit] Lyrics

This hymn is popular all over the world, in many different countries and languages. The lyrics in English are:

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.

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.

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 bide with me.

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.

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.

[edit] Tune

information taken from http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/b/abidewme.htm

The tune most often heard with this hymn is Eventide (.ogg sound file), composed by William H Monk in 1861.

Alternate tunes include:

Abide with Me, Henry Lyte, 1847
Morecambe, Frederick C. Atkinson, 1870
Penitentia, Edward Dearle, 1874

The tune can also be found here, as played by Clifton Stroud II on the boardwalk Hall Organ.

[edit] In Films and Television

In the film A Bridge Too Far, wounded British paratroopers trapped in Arnhem sing this hymn at a field hospital during a ceasefire.
In a flashback during an episode of the television series Lost, this hymn is played on the organ as the character Charlie is in confession.
Independent movie Latter Days: the hymn is sung, while one of the protagonists returns the forgotten pocket watch of his lover whom he believes to be dead to his mother
In The Full Monty (1997) Lomper plays Abide With Me at his mothers funeral scene.
The Danny Boyle film 28 Days Later has the hymn on its soundtrack: A female solo rendition can be heard in the background of the scene where Jim returns to his parents' house in Deptford and finds their bodies.