![]() ![]() His family were surprised and almost alarmed at his announcing his intention of preaching once more to his people. The summer was passing away, and the month of September (that month in which he was once more to quit his native land) arrived, and each day seemed to have a special value as being one day nearer his departure. His daughter, Anna Maria Maxwell Hogg, recounts the story of how "Abide with Me" came out of that context: Using his friend's more personal phrasing "Abide with Me", Lyte composed the hymn. The Biblical link for the hymn is Luke 24:29 in which the disciples asked Jesus to abide with them "for it is toward evening and the day is spent". The belief is that when Lyte felt his own end approaching twenty-seven years later at the age of 54, as he developed tuberculosis, he recalled the lines he had written so many years before in County Wexford. After leaving William's bedside, Lyte wrote the hymn and gave a copy of it to Le Hunte's family. ![]() As Lyte sat with the dying man, William kept repeating the phrase "abide with me…". It was related that Lyte was staying with the Hore family in County Wexford and had visited an old friend, William Augustus Le Hunte, who was dying. An article in The Spectator, 3 October 1925, says that Lyte composed the hymn in 1820 while visiting a dying friend. There is some controversy as to the exact dating of the text to "Abide with Me". For most of his life Lyte suffered from poor health, and he would regularly travel abroad for relief, as was customary at that time. Later he was vicar of All Saints' Church in Brixham, Devon, England. During that time the rector of Killurin Parish, the Reverend Abraham Swanne, was a lasting influence on Lyte's life and ministry. According to a plaque erected in his memory in Taghmon Church, he preached frequently in Killurin Church, about nine miles from there. He was a curate in County Wexford from 1815 to 1818. The author of the hymn, Henry Francis Lyte, was an Anglican cleric. It is most often sung to the tune "Eventide" by the English organist William Henry Monk. ![]() A prayer for God to stay with the speaker throughout life and in death, it was written by Lyte in 1847 as he was dying from tuberculosis. " Abide with Me" is a Christian hymn by Scottish Anglican cleric Henry Francis Lyte. ![]()
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