What tho' my frail eyelids refuse (Benjamin Milgrove)
Music files
ICON | SOURCE |
---|---|
Web Page | |
File details | |
Help |
- Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2010-08-15). Score information: Letter, 4 pages, 73 kB Copyright: CC BY SA
- Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download.
General Information
Title: What tho' my frail eyelids refuse
Composer: Benjamin Milgrove
Lyricist: Augustus Toplady
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Sacred, Hymn
Language: English
Instruments: Organ
First published: 1781 in Twelve hymns, book 3, no. 2
Description: The general congregation (sometimes divided into men and women) should sing the Air.
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
What tho' my frail eyelids refuse
Continually watching to keep,
And punctual as midnight renews
Demand the refreshment of sleep:
A sov'reign protector I have,
Unseen yet for ever at hand,
Unchangeably faithful to save,
Almighty to rule and command.
From evil secure, and its dread,
I rest if my saviour is nigh;
And songs his kind presence indeed
Shall in the night season supply:
He smiles, and my comforts abound;
His grace at the dew shall descend;
And walls of salvation surround
The soul he delights to defend.
Kind author and ground of my hope,
Thee, Thee for my God I avow;
My glad Ebenezer, set up:
And own, thou hast helped me till now.
I muse on the years that are past,
Wherein my defence thou hast prov'd;
Nor wilt thou relinquish at last,
A sinner so signally loved.
Inspirer and hearer of pray'r,
Thou feeder and guardian of thine,
My all to thy covenant-care
I, sleeping and waking, resign;
If thou art my shield and my sun,
The night is no darkness to me;
And, fast as my moments roll on,
They bring me but nearer to thee.
Thy minist'ring spirits descend,
To watch while thy saints are asleep;
By day and by night they attend,
The heirs of salvation to keep:
Bright seraphs, dispatch'd from the throne,
repair to their stations assign'd;
And angels elect are sent down,
To guard the elect of mankind.
Thy worship no interval knows;
Their fervour is still on the wing;
And, while they protect my repose,
They chaunt to the praise of my king;
I too, as the season ordain'd,
Their chorus for ever shall join,
And love and adore, without end,
Their faithful creator, and mine.