When Shades of Night Around Us close
When shades of night around us close,
And weary limbs in sleep repose,
The faithful soul awake may be,
And longing sigh, O Lord, to Thee.
Thou true Desire of nations, hear,
Thou Word of God, Thou Savior dear;
In pity heed our humble cries,
And bid at length the fallen rise.
O come, Redeemer, come and free
Thine own from guilt and misery;
The gates of Heav’n again unfold,
Which Adam’s sin had closed of old.
All praise, eternal Son, to Thee,
Whose advent sets Thy people free,
Whom with the Father we adore
And Holy Ghost forevermore.
Words: Charles Coffin, Paris Breviary, 1736 (In noctis umbrâ desides); translated from Latin to English by the compilers of Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1861.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 
Good morning Ellen B.,
We must have been thinking along the same lines this morning…your hymn goes beautifully with my morning devotion.
I hope you have a wonderfully FUN Sunday!
🙂 Cori G.
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus has been humming through my head all day. The words of your hymn are similar.
I hope you are resting this first Sunday of Advent.
There are so many hymns that I am unfamiliar with and this is one of them. But the words are so comforting. I especially like that first verse.
A beautiful hymn and verse! I had to go listen to it…just to hear the notes and sing along! http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/w/h/e/whenshon.htm
I love the words from the old songs!
Beautiful hymn. Those are words of great comfort and stability.
Lovely hymn! As those who had looked forward to the coming of Christ the first time…. even so, Lord, come quickly (the second time).
Blessings!
What a lovely hymn. You know me and hymns…Thanks for sharing.
Very beautiful hymn to start off advent, Ellen…and the photo goes so well with the feeling here…Happy Days of waiting…((HUGS))
Thank you for this information. 🙂