221. Work, for the night is coming
Anna Louisa Coghill, 1836-1907
Based on John 9:4: “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” The hymn was written when the author, eighteen years old, lived in Canada. It was published in a Canadian newspaper and later in her small volume of poems, Leaves from the Backwoods, Montreal, 1864.
Anna Louisa Walker was born in England but went in her teens with her parents to Sania, Canada, where her brothers were railway engineers. Returning to England, she became a governess for a time, then she reviewed books, making her home with her second cousin, a Mrs. Oliphant, for some years. In 1883 she married Harry Coghill, a wealthy merchant. She published six novels and a book of poems, Oak and Maple, and edited the Autobiography and Letters of Mrs. Oliphant.
MUSIC. WORK SONG, known in England as “Diligence,” was written for this hymn. To fit the tune it became necessary to drop a syllable in the fourth line of each verse, an alteration which the author disliked extremely and which she never sanctioned.
For comments on Lowell Mason see [Hymn 12].