ABIDE WITH ME

 

ABIDE WITH ME

          “Abide With Me” is a very famous Christian hymn.

          India’s great leader, Mahatma Gandhi (1868-1948), who fought for the country’s liberation from the British rule by non-violent means loved it and included it in the collection of his favourite hymns and songs.

          “Abide with me” means remain or stay with me.  It is a prayer addressed to God to help his devotee, i.e. the poet, at all critical times in life and in death.

          The writer  believes that there is no eternal guide and helper like God who abides with man through “cloud and sunshine”. Other guides and helpers change, but God does not. He stays with man “when other helpers fail, and comforts flee”.

           This hymn was written by a Scottish Anglican divine, hymnodist and poet Henry F. Lyte  (1 June 1793 –20 November 1847). He was ordained in 1815 and served in many parishes before becoming the pastor of All Saints Church in Lower Brixham,  Devonshire, England.

          Lyte was a patient of tuberculosis, then an incurable disease. According his biography he wrote his most famous hymn “Abide with Me” at the time when he was dying.  

          The hymn describes God as “Help of the helpless”, which is as true in other religions as in Christianity.

          The full hymn reads as follows:

          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.

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.

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

4 June 2025