A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Isaiah 32:2
Words: Charlotte M. Packard, 1864, alt. Appeared in her book From the Foothills of Song (Boston, Massachusetts: Richard G. Badger, 1908), as a poem titled Vespers.
Music: Arthur H. Brown, 1862 (🔊 
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If you know where to get a good photo of Packard (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels), would you send us an e-mail?
O Shadow in a sultry land!
We gather to Thy breast,
Whose love enfolding like the night
Brings quietude and rest,
Glimpse of the fairer life to be,
In foretaste here possessed!
From aimless wanderings we come,
From drifting to and fro;
The wave of being mingles deep
Amid its ebb and flow;
The grander sweep of tides serene
Our spirits yearn to know!
That which the garish day had lost,
The twilight vigil brings,
And softer now the vesper bell
Its silver cadence rings,
The sense of an immortal trust,
The brush of angel wings!
Drop down behind the solemn hills,
O day, with golden skies!
Serene above its fading glow,
Night, starry crowned, arise!
So beautiful may Heaven be,
When life’s last sunbeam dies!