It would be a wonderful thing to begin and end each day in worship in our homes. This was a pattern in the ancient monastic hours that included morning and evening set times, along with several other appointed times in the day. The entire cycle of seven primary hours are Matins/Vigils (night), Lauds (dawn), Prime (sunrise), Terce (mid-morning), Sext (noon), None (mid-afternoon), and Vespers (sunset), followed by Compline (bedtime). These hours form a cycle of praise and sanctification based on ancient traditions and were codified by the Italian Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century. We need not adopt that entire pattern (which also included rising in the middle of the night for a brief time of prayer!), but morning and evening are certainly do-able and beneficial for believers of all ages. For centuries, protestant churches have adopted a small part of that pattern on the Lord’s Day, with morning worship before noon, and then evening worship in the late afternoon, even often calling that a vesper service.
But there has also been something of that pattern in private homes. In its simplest form, it is evident in individuals (or couples) rising early for a time of quiet worship, sometimes called devotions. This was found in a time of Bible reading, prayer, and even singing at family breakfast, and a similar pattern as families gathered for their evening meal. Such practices have a rich and long-standing history, especially in evangelical and reformed households. There are wonderful scriptures that encourage a practice of personal and family piety. And there are hymns that also point specifically to morning and evening worship, whether at home or in church services. Those of us who grew up in churches with a Sunday evening service remember hymns like “Day Is Dying in the West,” “Abide with Me, Fast Falls the Eventide,” “Now the Day Is Over,” “The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended,” and “Softly Now the Light of Day.”
Such a hymn is the focus of this study, “Savior, Breathe an Evening Blessing.” It was written in 1820 by James Edmeston (1791-1867). Born in Wapping near London, he was the grandson of an Independent minister, Samuel Brewer. Fairly early in life he became a member of the Anglican Church and continued with that communion, in later years serving as a churchwarden. As a result of his education, he became a celebrated London architect and surveyor, a vocation which he followed from 1816 until his death, and was also a loyal supporter and frequent visitor of the London Orphan Asylum. Since he was particularly fond of children, many of his 2,000 hymns were intended for use in Sunday school.
For many years it was Edmeston’s practice to provide a hymn each week to be used at his family’s devotions every Sunday. Others of his hymns were produced for cottage prayer meetings. Reading Salte’s “Travels in Abyssinia,” modern day Ethiopia, he was especially impressed with the statement, “At night their short evening hymn…‘Jesus, forgive us,’ stole through the camp.” As a result, he set down these words, “Savior, Breathe an Evening Blessing.” The hymn was first published in his “Sacred Lyrics” of 1820. Its first publication as a hymn was in the 1833“Christian Psalmody,” edited by Edward H. Bickersteth, father of hymnwriter Edward Henry Bickersteth (1825-1906). It has been called one of the finest evening hymns in the English language. Edmeston, whose hymns were published in a total of seven volumes, along with five other books of poetry, died at Homerton, England, on January 7, 1867.
Ira Sankey was song leader for Dwight Moody. He has recorded this story about Edmeston’s hymn.
It rarely falls to the lot of any hymn to be sung under such trying circumstances as was this, during the [1900] outbreak in China, by a company of beleaguered missionaries who had gathered together one night in great fear lest they should have to suffer the fate of so many who were giving up their lives rather than deny their Lord.
The following account of the singing is furnished by Miss Helen Knox Strain, one of the missionaries present that night.
The Woman’s Union Missionary Society has a magnificent work just outside of the city of Shanghai. No harm had come to us up to this time, but serious threats and unpleasant rumors were rife; we dared not so much as put our heads out at night, though forty little soldier-men played at keeping us safe
Our missionaries have two centers at that place, and they meet often for prayer and consultation. At this particular time the rumors were so frightful, and the threats to burn our homes that very night so distressing, that we had a memorable meeting. Separated from home and friends, facing death in a far-off land, and full of tenderest feeling, we lifted our hearts in song…
Out of the storm each soul, renewing its strength, mounted up with wings as eagles and found peace in the secret of His presence.
Our Saviour breathed, in very deed, an evening blessing upon us, the fragrance of which remains even unto this day.
The last verse of the hymn, Should swift death this night o’ertake us, was omitted. It seemed too probable it might. We wanted only to think of the safe-keeping, and such, thank God, it proved to be.
For us today, this song gives deeper meaning to the little childhood prayer which many of us were taught to say as we went to bed for the night.
Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep;
If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take.
As we pillow our heads each evening, we can consecrate ourselves and prepare both for the morrow and for the eventuality of death by saying, “Savior, Breathe An Evening Blessing.” As we sing it, recognize that it is a prayer, sung to the Lord who is there with us as we lay down for the night, and who will be with us through the night as we sleep.
Stanza 1 is a petition as we turn out the light beside our bed and pull up the blanket, settling our head on our pillow. We ask the God from whom all blessings flow to bless us as we close our eyes, grateful for all the dimensions of His goodness, and for the fact that He never slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121). We probably began the day by asking afresh for His forgiveness and that He would keep us from sin. Now as we close the day, we ask Him again, since in our fallen state, though redeemed, yet we still struggle with sin each day, as Paul acknowledged in Romans 7.
Savior, breathe an evening blessing
Ere repose our spirits seal;
Sin and want we come confessing:
Thou canst save, and Thou canst heal.
Stanza 2 assures us that God will protect us during our sleep. The phrases come directly from Psalm 91:9-11. Many believers have found solace in these words, including during times when they have family members actually at the front lines of battle during war, and when terrible diseases spread as an epidemic sweeps across the land. This, of course, does not mean that bad things will never happen to God’s people, because we know that such things do occur, but it means that whatever does happen, those who trust the Lord can rest safe in His care (Psalm 119:117).
Though destruction walk around us,
Though the arrow past us fly,
Angel guards from Thee surround us;
We are safe if Thou art nigh.
Stanza 3 claims God’s promise that even darkness cannot keep God from seeing our needs and responding to our prayers. In this stanza, we sing the assurance from Psalm 139:11-12. With the words again from Psalm 121, we can be confident that He will never slumber or sleep, and will never grow weary.
Though the night be dark and dreary,
Darkness cannot hide from Thee;
Thou art He who, never weary,
Watchest where Thy people be.
Stanza 4 carries our concerns beyond the darkness of night, moving on to the ultimate darkness of death. Believers know that when death comes, we will immediately awaken in the presence of the Lord. Psalm 30:7 tells us that joy comes in the morning, and that will certainly be true of the morning of our awakening in glory.
Should swift death this night o’ertake us,
And our couch become our tomb,
May the morn in Heaven awake us,
Clad in light and deathless bloom.
Stanza 5 was not part of Edmeston’s original text. Edward Henry Bickersteth (1825-1906), Bishop of Exeter, felt that the fourth stanza was a bit too scary for children, so in 1870, He replaced it with two other stanzas, the first to commit our souls to the Father and the Son. It reflects Jesus’ words from the cross, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”
Father, to Thy holy keeping
Humbly we ourselves resign;
Savior, who hast slept our sleeping,
Make our slumbers pure as Thine.
Stanza 6 also comes from Bickersteth. He added a concluding stanza that asks God to watch over us during the night with a view toward the perfect day before us, similar to what Edmeston had written in stanza 4. In Bickerseth’s lyrics, he directed the prayer specifically to the Holy Spirit. The picture used here is that of the Spirit as He hovered or brooded over the waters of the earth at creation until God brought forth light (Genesis 1:2-3). So the hymnwriter asks that God will send us visions of the everlasting light for which we hope in order that He might give His
beloved sleep (Ps. 127:2)
Blessèd Spirit, brooding o’er us,
Chase the darkness of our night,
Till the perfect day before us
Breaks in everlasting light.
The tune (EVENING PRAYER) was composed by George Coles Stebbins (1846-1945), a prolific gospel song writer. Born in Orleans County, New York, he spent the first 23 years of his life on a farm. In 1869, he moved to Chicago, which marked the beginning of his musical career. Stebbins became the musical director of Chicago’s First Baptist Church in 1870, a position he held till the autumn of 1874, when he resigned to take up residence in Boston. During his residence in Chicago he became acquainted with Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey, and also with Philip Bliss and Major Whittle, both of whom early joined the great evangelistic movement inaugurated by Moody. Shortly after his move to Boston, Stebbins became the musical director of the Clarendon Street Baptist Church where Adoniram Judson Gordon was the minister In January 1876 he became the musical director of Tremont Temple, alongside George O. Lorimer.
In the summer of that year Stebbins had occasion to spend a few days with Moody at his home in Northfield, Massachusetts, and during his visit Moody persuaded him to enter evangelistic work under Moody’s direction, which Stebbins did that autumn. Stebbins’ first work in this connection was to organize the choir for the meetings which Moody and Sankey were to hold in the great building erected for them in Chicago and which were to continue through October, November, and December. During the remainder of the season Stebbins assisted other evangelists, and in the summer following he became one of the editors of “Gospel Hymns” and subsequently of the series of hymnbooks used by Moody during the remainder of his life. Afterward Stebbins became the sole editor of “Northfield Hymnal.”
Stebbins married Elma Miller before commencing his musical career. When he began his evangelistic work, she became actively involved, assisting him most efficiently in his singing, besides conducting meetings and giving Bible readings for ladies. During the nearly 25 years of his association with Moody, Stebbins assisted Moody and Sankey in their work both in this country and abroad besides working with other evangelists, among whom were George F. Pentecost and Major Whittle. In the autumn of 1890, Stebbins, with his wife and son, went with Pentecost to India for a season of work among the English-speaking inhabitants of that country; and during their stay there Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins and their son gave services of song in several of the principal cities of the country. On their return home they gave services of song also in Egypt and Palestine as well as in Naples, Rome, Florence, Paris, and London.
From the beginning of Moody’s work in Northfield, Stebbins has been one of the leaders of the singing at the summer conferences there and was the only one having official connection with the work at all general conferences for their first 30 years. He was also the last surviving member of the original group of men Moody had associated with him in his evangelistic work including Sankey, Whittle, Bliss, and James McGranahan.
Regarding Stebbins’ work, aside from his occupying important positions in churches and his leadership in the great movement with which he was connected for so many years, he was frequently engaged to lead the singing at international and state conventions of YMCA, Sunday Schools, Christian Endeavor, and other religious gatherings. Among these gatherings were the two greatest of the Christian Endeavor conventions, one held in New York City’s Madison Square Garden, at which there were 30 thousand delegates and one held in Boston when there were 50 thousand present. There was also the great Ecumenical Missionary conference held in Carnegie Hall and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the American YMCA in Boston. During these years his voice was not only heard in leading others, but it was also in constant demand in solo singing and on many occasions in singing with Sankey and others.
Stebbins was well equipped in the musical department of his work, as well as in the others, for he studied voice with some of the most celebrated teachers in the United States. Much as his voice was heard in different parts of the world, he is remembered foremost by the music which he composed, which has long survived him and demonstrated an appeal across time and cultural boundaries. Stebbins’ lasting legacy, the hymns that have become gospel music classics. Among those are “Jesus Is Calling,” “Jesus I Come,” “Have Thine Own Way, Lord,” and “Take Time to Be Holy.”
The EVENING PRAYER tune was originally produced in 1876 as a response to be sung after prayer at the morning services of the Tremont Temple Baptist Church in Boston, while he was the song director there. Two years later, while engaged in evangelistic services at Providence, Rhode Island, he discovered the appropriateness of Edmeston’s text with his tune. It was first published with these words in the 1878 “Gospel Hymns No. 3” which Stebbins edited along with Ira David Sankey (1840-1908) and James McGranahan (1840-1907). In his work “Story of the Gospel Hymns,” as noted above, Sankey later cited a report by Miss Helen Knox Strain that this hymn was sung by the Woman’s Union Missionary Society in Shanghai, China, during the Boxer Rebellion.
Here is a link to the singing of the first four (the original) stanzas.