Abide with Me

I was just reading Then Sings My Soul, 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories, by Robert J. Morgan and I came across the story of the Hymn "Abide with Me".

If you abide with Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ~ John 15:7

Henry Francis Lyte, vicar in the finishing village of Lower Brixham, Devonshire, England, ministered faithfully for twenty-three years to his sea-faring people.

Though a hunble couple, he and his wife, Anne, lived in an elegant estate, Berry Head. It had reportedly been provided by King William IV, who had been most impressed with Henry's ministry. At water's edge, its coastal views were among the most beautiful on the British Isles. Henry laid out walking trails through the estate-s forty-one acres and enjoyed the tranquility of the house and grounds. There he wrote most of his sermons, poems, and hymns.

But Henry's lung condition hung over the home like a blackening cloud. Lower Brixham suffered damp winters, and while in his early fifties Henry realized his lung disorder had deteriorated into tuberculosis. On September 4, 1847, age 54, he entered his pulpit with difficulty and preached what was to be his last sermon. He had planned a theraputic holiday in Italy. " I must put everything in order before I leave," he said, "because I have no idea how long I will be away."

That afternoon he walked along the coast in pensive prayer then retired to his room, emerging an hour later with a written copy of "Abide with Me". Some accounts indicate he wrote the poeem during that hour, others say that he discovered it in the bottom of his desk as he packed for his trip to Italy, and that it had been written a quarter century earlier. Probably both stories are true. It is likely that, finding sketches of a poem he previously started, he prayerfully revised and completed it that evening.

Shortly afterward, Henry embraced his family a final time and departed for Italy. Stopping in Avignon, France, he again revised "Abide with Me" - it was evidently much on his mind - and posted it to his wife. Arriving on the French Rivera, he checked into the Hotel de Angleterre in Nice, and there on November 20, 1847, his phthisic lungs finally gave out. Another English clergyman, a Rev. Manning of Chichester, who happened to be staying in the same hotel, attended him during his final hours. Henry's last words were, "Peace! Joy!"

When news of his death reached Brixham, the fisherman of the village asked Henry's son-in-law, also a minister, to hold a memorial service. It was on this occassion that "Abide With Me" was first sung.