Sunday's Hymn: Savior Breathe an Evening Blessing

Savior, breathe an evening blessing
Ere repose our spirits seal;
Sin and want we come confessing:
Thou canst save, and Thou canst heal.

Though destruction walk around us,
Though the arrow past us fly,
Angel guards from Thee surround us;
We are safe if Thou art nigh.

Though the night be dark and dreary,
Darkness cannot hide from Thee;
Thou art He who, never weary,
Watchest where Thy people be.

Should swift death this night o'ertake us,
And our couch become our tomb,
May the morn in heaven awake us,
Clad in light and deathless bloom.

Father, to thy holy keeping
Humbly we ourselves resign;
Savior, who hast slept our sleeping,
Make our slumbers pure as thine

Blessed Spirit, brooding o'er us,
Chase the darkness of our night,
Till the perfect day before us
Breaks in everlasting light.

Since I didn't post my Sunday's Hymn until late, I thought I'd post a hymn for the night time. The words to this one are written by James Edmeston. The Cyber Hymnal even gives us a little story to go with this hymn. During the Boxer Rebellion it was sung by a group of missionaries in China who had gathered together one evening at a time when they were fearful of specific threats to burn their homes that same night. From one of the missionaries, Miss Helen Knox Strain:

Separated from home and friends, facing death in a far-off land, and full of tenderest feeling, we lifted our hearts in song...

Out of the storm each soul, renewing its strength, mounted up with wings as eagles and found peace in the secret of His presence.

Our Saviour breathed, in very deed, an "evening blessing" upon us...