When on My Day of Life (EN 1520)

1

When on my day of life the night is falling,

And in the winds, from unsunned spaces blown,

I hear far voices out of darkness calling

My feet to paths unknown.

2

Thou, who hast made my home of life so pleasant,

Leave not its tenant when its walls decay;

O Love divine, O Helper ever present,

Be Thou my strength and stay!

3

Be near me when all else is from me drifting—

Earth, sky, home’s pictures, days of shade and shine,

And kindly faces to my own uplifting

The love which answers mine.

4

I have but Thee, my Father; let Thy Spirit

Be with me then to comfort and uphold;

No gate of pearl, no branch of palm I merit,

Nor street of shining gold.

5

Suffice it if—my good and ill unreckoned,

And both forgiven through Thy abounding grace—

I find myself by hands familiar beckoned

Unto my fitting place.

6

Some humble door among Thy many mansions,

Some sheltering shade where sin and striving cease,

And flows forever through heaven’s green expansions

The river of Thy peace.

7

There from the music round about me stealing

I fain would learn the new and holy song,

And find at last, beneath Thy trees of healing,

The life for which I long.