Hymns #1

I recently signed up for a Hymn-a-day at Cyber Hymnal . You can read the text and background information while listening to the Midi file. At first I wasn't too crazy about the Midi files, but you can listen and sing along while reading the text. I haven't been looking at the hymn each day, but I'd like to learn 1 or 2 "new" hymns a week. They have great teachings in them.

While I was browsing and waiting for the hymns to arrive by e-mail, the tune for the first song I looked at was composed by a man (George Kingsley) in my hometown!

And the words are by Harriet Beecher Stowe. You can go to the main page and find this hymn in the title list.

Abide in Me, O Lord

Abide in me, O Lord, and I in Thee,
From this good hour, oh, leave me nevermore;
Then shall the discord cease, the wound be healed,
The lifelong bleeding of the soul be o’er.

Abide in me; o’ershadow by Thy love
Each half formed purpose and dark thought of sin;
Quench ere it rise each selfish, low desire,
And keep my soul as Thine, calm and divine.

As some rare perfume in a vase of clay,
Pervades it with a fragrance not its own,
So, when Thou dwellest in a mortal soul,
All Heaven’s own sweetness seems around it thrown.

Abide in me; there have been moments blest
When I have heard Thy voice and felt Thy power;
Then evil lost its grasp; and passion, hushed,
Owned the divine enchantment of the hour.

These were but seasons beautiful and rare;
Abide in me, and they shall ever be;
Fulfill at once Thy precept and my prayer,
Come, and abide in me, and I in Thee.