Hallgrim Petursson's Deathbed Hymn

Representative Text

Come, Lord, Thyself with Thine abounding grace;
Mine utmost depth of need Thine eyes can trace:
Thou, Lord, through life's long way my Guard and Guide;
Let not Thy pilgrim's last tired footsteps slide.

Upon my sight dark dawns the rising day;
Faint fall the sounds of earth, and far away:
None, none can aid; by death's lone, narrow door,
I pass beyond man's help for evermore.

None, none can aid but Thou, Almighty Lord;
I stay me on Thine everlasting Word;
Let earth decay, heaven's far-flung glories pale,
Jehovah's plighted word can never fail.

Within the Eternal Arms I sink to rest,
Washed in the stream that flowed from Jesus' breast:
The life Thou gavest, Father, now defend;
Into Thine Hands my spirit I commend.

Let the last psalm my dying voice can raise,
Extol Thy loving-kindness, hymn Thy praise:
Let the first notes my wakening lips can frame
Amid the eternal glory, laud Thy Name.

First, midst, and last, through that unclouded day,
I would my Saviour's boundless grace display,
And swell the anthems of the ransomed host,
Adoring Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.



Source: Passion-Hymns of Iceland, The #14

Author: H. Petursson

(no biographical information available about H. Petursson.) Go to person page >

Translator: Charles Venn Pilcher

Pilcher, Charles Venn. (Oxford, June 4, 1879--July 4, 1961, Sydney, Australia). Anglican. Grandnephew of Charlotte Elliott. Hertford College, Oxford, B.A., 1902; M.A., 1905; B.D., 1909; D.D., 1921. Curacies at Birmingham, 1903-1905; St. James, Toronto, 1910-1916; taught theology at Auckland Castle, England, 1905-1906, and at Wycliffe College, Toronto, 1916-1936. Elected coadjutor bishop of Sydney, Australia, at the instance of a former Wycliffe colleague, Archbishop Mowll. He composed hymn tunes and other music, and long played bass clarinet in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Also, he translated and published much devotional material from Iceland, notably Iceland Christian Classics (1950). These side interests, like his hymn writing, merely… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Come, Lord, Thyself with Thine abounding grace
Title: Hallgrim Petursson's Deathbed Hymn
Author: H. Petursson
Translator: Charles Venn Pilcher
Meter: 10.10.10.10
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

EVENTIDE (Monk)

According to some sources, William H. Monk (PHH 332) wrote EVENTIDE for Lyte's text in ten minutes. As the story goes, Monk was attending a hymnal committee meeting for the 1861 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern of which he was music editor. Realizing that this text had no tune, Monk sat down at t…

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Ambassador Hymnal #618

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