When Shades Of Night Around Us Close

For Advent at Compiline

Words: In Noctis Umbra Desides, Charles Coffin (1676-1749), Paris Breviary, 1736
Translated from Latin to English in Hymns Ancient and Modern.

Compare: In Night's Dim Shadows Lying

Music: "St. Gall," Cantarium S. Galli, 1845

Source: W. H. Monk and C. Steggall, eds., Hymns Ancient and Modern (London, William Clowes and Sons, Old Edition, 1889), Hymn 54

1. When shades of night around us close,
And weary limbs in sleep repose,
The faithful soul awake may be,
And longing sigh, O Lord, to Thee.

2. Thou true Desire of nations, hear,
Thou Word of God, Thou Savior dear;
In pity heed our humble cries,
And bid at length the fallen rise.

3. O come, Redeemer, come and free
Thine own from guilt and misery;
The gates of heav’n again unfold,
Which Adam’s sin had closed of old.

4. All praise, eternal Son, to Thee,
Whose advent sets¹ Thy people free,
Whom with the Father we adore
And Holy Ghost forevermore. Amen.

Note:

1. Or: 'doth' Return

Sheet Music "Evening Hymn" from J. H. Hopkins, ed., Great Hymns of the Church Compiled by the Late Right Reverend John Freeman Young (New York: James Pott & Company, 1887), #29, p. 41

"Proper Melody from the Rouen Gradual, abridged.
Harmonized by Hermann R. Schrœder"

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