38. Savior, breathe an evening blessing
James Edmeston, 1791-1867
This hymn ranks with the best of the evening hymns of the English language though it is practically all that survives of the more than two thousand hymns that came from the too prolific pen of the author.
James Edmeston, a member of the Church of England, was an eminent London architect and surveyor who had a great love for and interest in children and possessed a gift for writing sacred poetry. He had the habit of writing a hymn every Sunday and reading it at family worship.
During the Boxer uprising in China in 1900, in which many Americans lost their lives, a group of missionaries, beleaguered outside of Shanghai, found in this hymn the expression of their feelings, as well as a great source of comfort. One of them wrote:
Separated from home and friends, facing death in a far-off land, and full of tenderest feelings, we lifted our hearts in song:
“Though destruction walk around us,
Though the arrows past us fly:
Angel guards from Thee surround us;
We are safe if Thou art nigh.”
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,” 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 that it might. We wanted only to think of the safe-keeping, and such, thank God, it proved to be.
MUSIC. The tune EVENING PRAYER was written by Stebbins while music director at Tremont Temple, Boston, as a response to be sung after the morning prayer. Two years later it was set to this evening hymn by the composer himself, for use in an evangelistic campaign in Providence, R. I. Stebbins writes, “I arranged to have a male choir of 20 voices sing the music as set to the beautiful hymn, and to my gratification found they were admirably suited to each other. Since then the hymn has been used in many gospel hymn books and church hymnals, both here and abroad. It has been used also in St. Paul’s Cathedral, in London.”
George C. Stebbins, 1846-1945, was born and reared on a farm in New York. He became interested in music through the country singing school. After serving as music director at the First Baptist Church, Chicago, and Tremont Temple, Boston, he became associated with D. L. Moody and helped organize choruses for many of Moody’s evangelistic campaigns both here and abroad. He was co-editor with Ira Sankey and James McGranahan of various editions of Gospel Hymns and was himself one of the best composers of gospel hymn tunes. He lived to be nearly 100 years old.
The hymn is also set to the tune “Ringe Recht” ([147]) in some hymnals.