Favourite Music

THE DAY THOU GAVEST

Words

1     The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended;
The darkness falls at thy behest;
To thee our morning hymns ascended,
Thy praise shall sanctify our rest.

2     We thank thee that thy Church unsleeping,
While earth rolls onward into light,
Through all the world her watch is keeping,
And rests not now by day or night.

3     As o’er each continent and island
The dawn leads on another day,
The voice of prayer is never silent,
Nor dies the strain of praise away.

4     The sun that bids us rest is waking
Our brethren ‘neath the western sky,
And hour by hour fresh lips are making
Thy wondrous doings heard on high.

5     So be it, Lord! thy throne shall never,
Like earth’s proud empires, pass away;
The Kingdom stands and grows for ever,
Till all thy creatures own thy sway

Background Information

This hymn is popular with just about everyone (probably as much as anything because of the tune).  It is a common choice at funerals, which is perhaps a little strange, as it is a Victorian ‘mission’ hymn, written to be used at Missionary meetings which people attended to hear about Christianity in far away parts of the world.  However, many like to think of it as about the ‘evening’ of life.

The words were written by John Ellerton (1826 - 1893) in 1870 for the publication ‘A liturgy for Missionary Meetings’. The tune, ‘St Clement’, was composed for these words by Clement C Scholefield (1839 - 1904).  Ellerton was a clergyman who was involved in the development and compilation of several Victorian hymn books.  Scholefield was also a clergyman and composed many hymn tunes.

The tune can be used for other hymns with a 9898 metre (ie 9 syllables in the first line, 8 in the second etc) but the slurring of notes in the melody means you have to think a bit about how the words fit.

Queen Victoria chose this hymn at the celebrations for her diamond jubilee in 1897; it was also sung at the ceremony when Britian returned control of Hong Kong to China in 1997.

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