Why should I fear the darkest hour

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Why should I fear the darkest hour

Author: John Newton
Published in 42 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Why should I fear the darkest hour,
Or tremble at the tempter’s power?
Jesus vouchsafes to be my tower.

2 When creature comforts fade and die,
Worldlings may weep, but why should I?
Jesus still lives, and still is nigh.

3 Though all the flocks and herds were dead,
My soul a famine need not dread,
For Jesus is my living bread.

4 I know not what may soon betide,
Or how my wants shall be supplied;
But Jesus knows, and will provide.

5 Though sin would fill me with distress,
The throne of grace I dare address,
For Jesus is my righteousness.

6 Though faint my prayers, and cold my love,
My steadfast hope shall not remove,
While Jesus intercedes above.

7 Against me earth and hell combine;
But on my side is power divine;
Jesus is all, and He is mine.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #11925

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Author: John Newton

John Newton (b. London, England, 1725; d. London, 1807) was born into a Christian home, but his godly mother died when he was seven, and he joined his father at sea when he was eleven. His licentious and tumultuous sailing life included a flogging for attempted desertion from the Royal Navy and captivity by a slave trader in West Africa. After his escape he himself became the captain of a slave ship. Several factors contributed to Newton's conversion: a near-drowning in 1748, the piety of his friend Mary Catlett, (whom he married in 1750), and his reading of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and, in association with William Wilberforce, eventually became an ardent abolitionist. After becoming a tide… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Why should I fear the darkest hour
Author:	John Newton
Meter:	8.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Why should I fear the darkest hour? J. Newton. [Jesus All and in All.] Printed in the Gospel Magazine, June, 1771 in 8 stanzas of 3 lines, headed "In uno Jesu omnia," and signed "Omicron." It was included in the Olney Hymns, 1779, Bk. iii., No. 46, with the heading “Jesus my All." It has passed into a large number of hymn-books both old and new. It is usually abbreviated.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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