Abide With Me

Friday nights at 9:00 PM (in our cable market), my husband and daughter watch “Doctor Who” on the Sci-Fi channel. I sometimes participate in this activity; other times I fold laundry or read a book. Anyway, don’t ask me why, but at the end of tonight’s episode, the background music was playing the hymn “Abide with Me.” The distant chorus was singing words, but they were difficult to make out so, just in case anyone was curious, here is the text of the hymn:

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, O 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. Amen.