Tuesday, October 03, 2006

The Sun Declines

I don't know why but I've been having some evening songs come to my mind. You know, the "Take the Name of Jesus With You" songs that we used to end Sunday evening worship with. Now that many churches are leaving the Sunday evening worship services for small groups, we have missed a lot of those songs. It would be a little out of place to sing, "The Sun Declines" in a Sunday morning worship.
There were a number of songs that had beautiful words and music set to it that we used to sing at high church when we lived in Searcy. My good friend, David, knows these songs well. For instance:
Savior, again to Thy dear name we raise,
With one accord, our parting hymn of praise;
We stand to bless Thee ere our worship cease,
Then lowly bowing, wait Thy word of peace.

Grant us Thy peace throughout our earthly life;
Our balm in sorrow, and our stay in strife;
Then, when Thy voice shall bid our conflict cease,
Call us, O Lord, to Thine eternal peace.


Beautiful song, isn't it? Or how about this one:
The sun declines: o'er land and sea
Creeps on the night;
The twinkling stars come one by one
To shed their light;
With Thee there is no darkness, Lord;
With us abide;
And 'neath Thy wings we rest secure This eventide.

And when with morning light we rise,
Kept by Thy care,
We'll lift to Thee with grateful hearts
Our morning prayer;
Be Thou thro life our Strength and Stay,
Our Guard and Guide
To that dear home where there will be no eventide.


I don't have time to talk about "Now the Day is Over" or "Day is Dying in the West." But I will continue to remember the beautiful sentiments in all of these songs even though we don't sing them anymore. Have a great day. JW

1 comment:

Franklin Wood said...

I've always been partial to "The LORD Bless You and Keep You."
I love the priestly blessing.