Christian Worship The Christian’s Death.
Behold the western evening light!
It melts in deeper gloom;
So calm the righteous sink away,
Descending to the tomb.
The winds breathe low-the yellow leaf
Scarce whispers from the tree!
So gently flows the parting breath,
When good men cease to be.
How beautiful, on all the hills,
The crimson light is shed!
‘Tis like the peace the dying gives
To mourners round his bed.
How mildly on the wandering cloud
The sunset beam is cast!
So sweet the memory left behind,
When loved ones breathe their last.
And lo! above the dews of night
The vesper star appears!
So faith lights up the mourner’s heart,
Whose eyes are dim with tears.
Night falls, but soon the morning light
Its glories shall restore;
And thus the eyes that sleep in death
Shall wake, to close no more.
I have a photo of an 1863 gravestone in Vermont US with the last four lines of this hymn, beginning wth “Night falls.” From where is this hymn derived derived? It obviously dates to at least that time.
Stephen Shiman
Saco, Maine
USA
I created this site a while ago from an out of print out of copyright book from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20476/20476-8.txt
Hymns for Christian Devotion, by J.G. Adams and E.H. Chapin
Scroll to page 544. or search for “Behold the western evening light!” to find the particular text.
The book was published in 1853, but it’s the 22nd edition so presumably much older.
No idea about it’s origin.
Since you are interested in the last 4 lines (might not be unique to this text) you can use “speech marks” in Google to limit what you search for: Basically search for the line below in Google.
“Night falls, but soon the morning light”
It’s less than 200 results, maybe one of them has the origin.
Good luck.