’Tis gone, that bright and orb­èd blaze,
Fast fad­ing from our wist­ful gaze;
Yon mant­ling cloud has hid from sight
The last faint pulse of quiv­er­ing light.

In dark­ness and in wea­ri­ness
The trav­el­er on his way must press,
No gleam to watch on tree or tow­er,
Whiling away the lone­some hour.

Sun of my soul! Thou Sav­ior dear,
It is not night if Thou be near:
Oh, may no earth-born cloud arise
To hide Thee from Thy serv­ant’s eyes!

When round Thy won­drous works be­low
My search­ing rap­tur­ous glance I throw,
Tracing out wis­dom, pow­er and love,
In earth or sky, in stream or grove,

Or by the light Thy words dis­close
Watch time’s full riv­er as it flows,
Scanning Thy gra­cious prov­idence,
Where not too deep for mor­tal sense.

When with dear friends sweet talk I hold,
And all the flow­ers of life un­fold;
Let not my heart with­in me burn,
Except in all I Thee dis­cern.

When soft the dews of kind­ly sleep
My wear­ied eye­lids gent­ly steep,
Be my last thought, how sweet to rest
For ev­er on my Sav­ior’s breast.

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.

Thou fram­er of the light and dark,
Steer through the tem­pest Thine own ark:
Amid the howl­ing win­try sea
We are in port if we have Thee.

The rul­ers of this Christ­ian land,
’Twixt Thee and us or­dained to stand—
Guide Thou their course, O Lord, aright,
Let all do all as in Thy sight.

Oh! by Thine own sad bur­then, borne
So meek­ly up the hill of scorn,
Teach Thou Thy priests their da­ily cross
To bear as Thine, nor count it loss!

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.

Watch by the sick: en­rich the poor
With bless­ings from Thy bound­less store:
Be ev­ery mourn­er’s sleep to­night,
Like i­nfants’ slum­bers, pure and light.

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 Heav­en ab­ove.