The long descent is o’er

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The long descent is o'er. Elizabeth Rundle-Charles. [ St. Thomas.] An adaptation of her poem, "The Winter Solstice," in her Songs, New and Old , 1887, p. 227, for St. Thomas's Day in the Hymnal Companion, 1890. "Its thoughts on the shortest day of the year interwoven with the apostle St. Thomas struggling ‘From downward steeps of doubt’ [stanza ii.] into the calm sunlight of faith, will not be forgotten when once suggested by this most helpful hymn " (Bp. Bickersteth's Note, p. cv.).

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

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The Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer with accompanying tunes (3rd ed., rev. and enl.) (1893), p.485