Abide with Me

St. Bonaventure. This is is the bright forever. Hello and welcome to The Bright Forever, where each week we explore the depths of the power and richness of some of the greatest hymns of the faith. My name is Andy Peavyhouse, and I will be your guide and host on this amazing tour through the world of hymnody. Last week, we spoke about the amazing Irish poem turned hymn, Be Thou My Vision, and the incredible picture of a life devoted to and focused on the author and perfecter of our faith when God is our vision. For me, that has always been what draws me to hymns. They have a way of weaving a tapestry through theology, doctrine, and a life lived for Christ that in the end reminds me where I fail and fall, yet spurs me on to live a life worthy of the higher calling of my Savior. When I was young, I grew up in a First Baptist church. Just from the name, you can guess there were probably some older people there. As I sat in the pew beside my parents and grandparents and others, I was captivated by the way they would sing these old hymns. Hymns meant something to them. And because of that, they began to mean something to me as well. Say what you will about traditional churches, But in their expressions of worship, as they sang these hymns, most times from memory, I saw an unmistakable love for God and a majesty that made me want to sing too. And I've been captivated by hymns ever since. And as I talked about this in previous podcasts, music, especially through singing hymns, was the way I found my voice and eventually found my Savior. As I continue to dig into hymns, I find that most hymn authors led lives filled with suffering and pain. Many hymns were born out of a profound sorrow. And more often than not, were not discovered until well after the author had passed. That sounds so strange to a culture like we have today. I was reading an article by Keisha Valentina called The Story of Our Hymns. It's a blog post about a deeper book called The Story of Our Hymns that we're going to talk about later. But she was talking about Henry Francis Light. And she said it like this, in a world of fame-seeking instant gratification, this is almost unheard of. This idea that somebody would write something and we wouldn't discover it until... long after their death or until they had passed away. This idea is foreign to our culture today. The idea of you do something and you want instant gratification. You want people telling you how wonderful it is that you've done this. So to find these stories of these hymns that didn't become popular until long after the author's death, it's just, it's unheard of. And she says, the rarity of it caused me to look deeper. For in these stories, the story of our hymns, it is not the author, their music, or even the stories themselves that achieve great fame and success. It is woven into the very fabric of these melodies to bring glory to God, to remember what he has done past, present, Which brings us to our hymn for this week. Here's a little different version of the hymn with a new tune by Matthew Perryman Jones from Indelible Grace. It's a little different than what you probably have heard of, but this is Abide With Me.

Fast falls the eventide The darkness deepens Lord with me abide When other helpers Fail and comforts flee Abide with me Thou on my head in Early youth did smile And though rebellious And perverse meanwhile Thou hast not left me To the close, Lord, abide with me. I need Thy presence every passing hour. What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's power? Who like Thyself might Guidance day can be Through cloud and sunshine Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies As morning breaks and earthling shadows flee In life and death, Lord

That was Matthew Perryman Jones from the album Wake Thy Slumbering Children from 2007 from Indelible Grace Music. From their website, I just want to read this. Indelible Grace Music grew out of a ministering to college students, primarily through Reformed University Fellowship, RUF. As these students began to taste more of the depth of the gospel and the riches of the hymn tradition, many began to join the music of their culture with the words of our forefathers and mothers and a movement was born. Our hope is to be a voice calling our generation back to something rich and solid and beyond the fluff and the trendy. We want to remind God's people that thinking and worship are not mutually exclusive. And we want to invite the church to to appreciate her heritage without idolizing it. We want to open up a world of passion and truth and make it more than just an archaic curiosity for the religiously sentimental. We believe worship is formative and that it does matter what we sing. That's from the Indelible Grace website. Indelible Grace, if you... Have not come upon it. It is absolutely amazing. We've talked about this when we were in episode number seven, when we talked about when I surveyed the Wondrous Cross and Isaac Watts and how he took hymns and he turned them into something new by putting new melodies and new approaches to hymns and to writing new hymns as well. But Indelible Grace is very much in that vein of taking these ancient hymns and bringing them into the next generation and bringing them to the next generation through new tunes and new melodies. And that was Matthew Perryman Jones from Indelible Grace doing Abide With Me. E.E. Ryden, author of The Story of Our Hymns, writes this. Many a man who has labored in obscure places, practically unnoticed and unpraised by his own generation, has achieved a fame after his death that grows in magnitude with the passing years. He's speaking, of course, of Henry Francis Light, the author of our hymn for this week, Abide With Me. Henry Francis Light, was born in 1793 and was orphaned at a very young age. In spite of his poverty, he attended college, winning awards for his poetry. He had originally thought to become a doctor, but felt called to the ministry during his college years. The death of a friend changed him as he was called to his bedside to offer solace and comfort. He found that he didn't know what to say to his friend. He didn't know how to console him. He didn't know the words to speak, and it wrecked him. And in that, it made him want to study his Bible more and to change the way he thought. He wanted to know God better and be able to share that knowledge with those in need. Light later said of the experience, I was greatly affected by the whole matter and brought to look at life and its issues with a different eye than before. And I began to study my Bible and preach in another manner than I had previously done. Later, he became the vicar of a fishing village in Devonshire, England. The parish was found at an elegant estate named Berryhead. It had the most beautiful views of the coast of the British Isles. Light would map out walking trails throughout the estate and wrote most of his sermons, hymns, and poetry while walking these trails. With those walks in mind, it doesn't seem a surprise that the title of our hymn today, Light Took, from Luke 24-29, when those who walked with Christ on the road to Emmaus said, abide with us for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent. So he, Jesus went in to stay with him. They're walking along the road and it's getting, it's getting dark. It's, it's towards the end of the day. And they say, Hey, Come in and abide with us. And Jesus says, okay. For most of his life, light suffered from poor health. He would regularly travel abroad for relief as was the custom in that time. You would move to warmer, drier climates for relief from the sting of illness. However, at the age of 54, he came near to the end of his life when it was discovered that he had tuberculosis. Carl Price recalls a story in his book, 101 Hymn Stories, about how this hymn came to be. The spirit of the walk of Christ with the disciples to Emmaus at eventide is reproduced in the hymn, Abide With Me. This has been sung at the close of many a day and indeed many a Christian life as believers have uttered it as a prayer for the presence of Christ in their final days. It's a call for comfort from God's presence. The richness of its lyrics captures the author's desperate need for the one who abides with us, even in our darkest hours. Price goes on to recall it was composed one Sabbath evening in 1847 out of a deep sadness that had settled down upon its author. He had conducted his last sermon, a communion service that day, and he closed out a pastorate of 24 years. He was going to leave and he was going to travel again for a warmer climate and he knew that his health was failing him. His daughter, Anne-Marie Maxwell Hogg, recounts this story. His family were surprised and almost alarmed at his announcing his intention of preaching once more to his people. His weakness and the possible danger attending the effort were urged to prevent it, but in vain. She said that he used to often playfully, when in comparative health, say, it was better to wear out than to rust out.

Yeah.

And I like that. It's better to wear out than to rust out. He felt that he should be enabled to fulfill his wish and feared not for the result. His expectation was well-founded. He did preach, and amid the breathless attention of his hearers, gave them his final sermon on the Holy Communion. Christ continues to recount toward evening. He walked down his well-worn path to the seaside and there began to pin the imagery and many of the lines of his famous hymn into this. He has woven the sense of change and of helplessness that one must feel in the presence of death. and also the trustful dependence upon Jesus Christ, the help of the helpless, which every true Christian must feel in that solemn hour. Returning home, he finished the hymn, perfecting its lines and giving to the Christian world one of its tenderest hymns of prayer. His daughter recalls, in the evening call, of the same day he placed in the hands of a near and dear relative the little hymn, Abide With Me. He left at once for the south of France, and soon after his arrival in Nice on November 20, 1847, his strength failed him. And whispering the words, Peace, Joy, While he was pointing his hand heavenward, he died. 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. Oh, abide with me. A little cross marks his grave in the English cemetery at Nice, where he is buried and many visit his grave, telling stories of how the hymn had brought them to faith. Abide with me, fast falls the

and tight The darkness deepens Lord with me abide When all the helpers fail and comforts flee Help of the helpless O It

was Light's wish to write a hymn like this, a hymn that would stand the test of time. He even said as much in an earlier poem in which he wrote,"'O thou whose touch can lend life to the dead, thy quickening grace supply and grant me swan-like my last breath.'" to spend in song that may not die. His wish came true. Light did write a hymn that has lived on well past his own life and continues to draw those who are desperate for the closeness of God to a right relationship with their Lord and Savior. According to some sources, Light had written a tune of his own. But it never came into use. William H. Monk, who was attending a hymnal committee meeting, saw Light's text and realizing it did not have a tune, sat at a piano and composed Eventide in 10 minutes. The tune has been associated with Abide With Me to this day. Here is Abide With Me in the original tune. Performed by Nathan Drake from Reawaken Hymns.

Abide with me Fast falls the eventide Darkness deepens, Lord, with me abide When other helpers fail Earth's shores grow dim, its glories pass away. Change. That

was Abide With Me. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. As many of you may now be aware, we are currently running a Facebook ad throughout the U.S. We seem to be picking up some new listeners, which is awesome. We are so glad that you could join us. Please share this in your social media circles. Tell them about us. Tell them who we are and what we're all about. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please let us know what you think. Send your comments to podcastatthebrightforever.com. Again, that is podcastatthebrightforever.com. Again, thank you for joining me. Thank you for listening. I hope you will continue to enjoy this as we go. Let me leave you with this prayer. Lord, you tell us in your word that unless we abide in you and you in us, We can do nothing. So our humble prayer is that you keep pursuing us, keep calling us out, keep reminding us of your great love that was demonstrated to us through Christ's finished work on the cross. Help us to run the race with endurance, with our eyes fixed on the author and perfecter, Hold your cross before our closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point us to the skies. As heaven's morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee, in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me. Abide with us all as we go about our week and bring us back safely to life. Next week. In Christ we pray. Amen. Have a great week. I'll see you back here next week. God bless. We're out.

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