The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,
It is not night if Thou be near.
Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in Thee I find.
Some of the most sublime passages in ancient chant and modern hymn are those in which the singer turns from the confession of a common sin or the expression of a common gratitude to claim a personal share in it. Even that greatest hymn of the Church’s public worship, the ‘Te Deum Laudamus,’ voices at last the cry of the individual believer—
In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me not be ashamed for ever.
So Charles Wesley, celebrating the first anniversary of his conversion, sings—
He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;