1 As now the sun's declining rays
at eventide descend,
so life's brief day is sinking down
to its appointed end.
2 Lord, on the cross thine arms were stretched
to draw thy people nigh:
O grant us then that cross to love,
and in those arms to die.
3 All glory to the Father be,
all glory to the Son,
all glory, Holy Ghost, to thee,
while endless ages run.
Source: Ancient and Modern: hymns and songs for refreshing worship #11
Coffin, Charles, born at Buzaney (Ardennes) in 1676, died 1749, was principal of the college at Beauvais, 1712 (succeeding the historian Rollin), and rector of the University of Paris, 1718. He published in 1727 some, of his Latin poems, for which he was already noted, and in 1736 the bulk of his hymns appeared in the Paris Breviary of that year. In the same year he published them as Hymni Sacri Auctore Carolo Coffin, and in 1755 a complete ed. of his Works was issued in 2 vols. To his Hymni Sacri is prefixed an interesting preface. The whole plan of his hymns, and of the Paris Breviary which he so largely influenced, comes out in his words.
"In his porro scribendis Hymnis non tam poetico indulgendunv spiritui, quam nitoro et pietate co… Go to person page >| First Line: | As now the sun's declining rays |
| Title: | As Now the Sun's Declining Rays |
| Latin Title: | Labente jam solis rota |
| Translator: | John Chandler (1837) |
| Author: | Charles Coffin (1736) |
| Meter: | 8.6.8.6 |
| Language: | English |
| Copyright: | Public Domain |
Labente jam solis rota. C. Coffin. [Afternoon, Sunday.] Appeared in his Hymni Sacri, 1736, p. 93, as "Prono volutus impetu," and again in the Paris Breviary the same year, as "Labente jam solis rota." It is also in J. Chandler's Hymns of the Primitive Church, 1837, No. 8, and in Card. Newman's Hymni Ecclesiae, 1838 and 1865. Translated as:—
1. Now the day's declining wheel. By I. Williams, in the British Magazine, Jan. 1834; and again in his Hymns translated from the Parisian Breviary, 1839, p. 9, in 14 irregular lines. Rearranged as a hymn in 3 stanzas of 4 lines, in 4 of L.M., it was given in the English Hymnal, 1852, No. 10, and repeated in 1856 and 1861.
2. As now the sun's declining rays. By J. Chandler, in his Hymns of the Primitive Church, 1837, p. 7. It was soon incorporated in several hymnbooks as an afternoon hymn, and gradually grew in favour until few modern hymnbooks of the first rank are found without it. Usually the text is given without alteration as in the People's Hymnal, 1867. The text of Hymns Ancient & Modern, 1861 and 1875, is Chandler altered by the Compilers, the changes being in stanza i. and the doxology. This text is repeated in Thring's Collection, 1882, and others. In Kennedy, 1863, Chandler's translation is revised by the Editor.
--Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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