Hark the Nightly Church Bell

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Hark, the nightly church-bell numbers

Author: Edward Henry Bickersteth
Tune: EVENING HYMN (North)
Published in 3 hymnals

Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Hark the nightly church-bell numbers
One day more with bygone things;
Angels, o’er our peaceful slumbers,
Spread ye now protecting wings.

Chorus:
Blessed Spirit, hover o’er us,
Sleeping, waking, be Thou near;
Comrades, there is joy before us—
Rest in peace, and rise in pray’r.

2 One day less of toil and labor,
One day nearer rest and Thee,
Child and parent, friend and neighbor,
Lift your voice and bend your knee. [Chorus]

Source: Hymns for Today: for Sunday Schools, Young People's Societies, The Church, The Home, Community Welfare Associations, and Patriotic Meetings #27

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Author: Edward Henry Bickersteth

Bickersteth, Edward Henry, D.D., son of Edward Bickersteth, Sr. born at Islington, Jan. 1825, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. with honours, 1847; M.A., 1850). On taking Holy Orders in 1848, he became curate of Banningham, Norfolk, and then of Christ Church, Tunbridge Wells. His preferment to the Rectory of Hinton-Martell, in 1852, was followed by that of the Vicarage of Christ Church, Hampstead, 1855. In 1885 he became Dean of Gloucester, and the same year Bishop of Exeter. Bishop Bickersteth's works, chiefly poetical, are:— (l) Poems, 1849; (2) Water from the Well-spring, 1852; (3) The Rock of Ages, 1858 ; (4) Commentary on the New Testament, 1864; (5) Yesterday, To-day, and For Ever, 1867; (6) The Spirit of Life, 1868;… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Hark, the nightly church-bell numbers
Title:	Hark the Nightly Church Bell
Author:	Edward Henry Bickersteth
Language:	English
Refrain First Line:	Blessed Spirit, hover over us
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Hark, the nightly church-bell numbers. Bp. F. H. Bickersteth. [Evening.] Written in 1853 and let published in a tract, The Cottager's Handbook of Family Prayers, 1854. It was repeated in his Supplement to his Psalms & Hymns, based on the Christian Psalmody, 1858, No. 7, and again iii his work, The Two Brothers, &c, 1871, p. 247, and entitled, “The Village Evening Hymn."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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