~Sun Of My Soul

       The Christian Year is one of the world’s greatest books of poems. It was written by John Keble, and it is a series of poems on the different special services and saints’ days of the Episcopal Church.

       The book was published in 1827, and within twenty-six years forty-three editions were sold. Before the writer died, he had seen ninety-six editions, and more than half a million copies had been sold.

       The two poems that begin The Christian Year have each given us a famous hymn. One is a morning hymn. The other is the still more famous evening hymn.

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Sun of My Soul[1]

1           Sun of my soul, Thou Savior dear,

It is not night if Thou be near;

O may no earth-born cloud arise

To hide Thee from Thy servant’s eyes.

2           When the soft dews of kindly sleep

My wearied eyelids gently steep

Be my last thought, how sweet to rest

For ever on my Savior’s breast.

3           Abide with me from morn till eve,

For without Thee I cannot live;

Abide with me when night is nigh,

For without Thee I dare not die.

4           If some poor wandering child of Thine

Have spurned today the voice divine,

Now, Lord, the gracious work begin;

Let him no more lie down in sin.

5           Watch by the sick; enrich the poor

With blessings from Thy boundless store;

Be every mourner’s sleep tonight,

Like infant’s slumbers, pure and light.

6           Come near and bless us when we wake,

Ere through the world our way we take;

Till, in the ocean of Thy love,

We lose ourselves in heav’n above.