1 Omnipresent God, whose aid
No one ever asked in vain,
Be this night about my bed,
Every evil thought restrain:
2 Lay Thy hand upon my soul,
God of my unguarded hours!
All my enemies control,
Hell, and earth, and nature's powers.
3 Loose me from the chains of sense,
Set me from the body free:
Draw with stronger influence
My unfettered soul to Thee.
4 In me, Lord, Thyself reveal,
Fill me with a sweet surprise;
Let me Thee, when waking, feel,
Let me in Thine image rise.
Source: The Book of Worship #197
First Line: | Omnipresent God, whose aid |
Title: | Evening |
Author: | Charles Wesley |
Meter: | 7.7.7.7 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Omnipresent God, Whose aid. C. Wesley. [Evening.] Published in Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1749, vol. i., in 8 stanzas of 8 lines (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. v. p. 8). In the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1780, stanzas i., iv.-vi. were given as No. 278, and in the revised edition, 1875, stanzas vii., viii. were added thereto. In addition to these forms of the hymn the following centos are also in common use:—- (1) "Holiest Whose present might," stanzas i. and vi., altered in the American Unitarian Hymns of the Spirit, 1864, and others; and (2) "O Thou Holy God, come down," stanzas iv. and vi., in the American Unitarian Hymns of the Church of Christ, 1853; Beecher's Plymouth Collection, 1855, and others.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)