Abide With Me

Abide With Me, what a beautiful song. There's no date, going on the condition of the paper, I would guess somewhere around the 1930's or 40's. The words above the verses say "the immortal anthem original with the original 8 verses." The man who wrote Abide With Me was Henry Francis Lyte. He was born in Scotland in 1793 and studied at Trinity College in Dublin. He took Anglican holy orders in 1815. He was also a hymn writer and a poet.

Abide With Me is his best known hymn, and according to a traditional story, Lyte wrote it a few hours after conducting the final service at his church, which was probably September 5, 1847. More likely the hymn was written in July or August of that year.  Lyte himself created for the hymn what his biographer has disparaged as "a dull tune." When Hymns Ancient and Modern was published in 1861, the editor, William H. Monk—whose three-year-old daughter had just died, composed his own tune, "Eventide," for Lyte's Poem.

A couple cool things about the song, it was said to be on the lips of Edith Cavell when she faced a German firing squad. It also has been sung at the The Football Association Challenge Cup, or FA Cup, finals since 1927. Pretty cool. 

This is one of my favorite hymns. It doesn't matter what you believe, or what you think about religion, this is a beautiful song.