CHARLES DICKENS’ ONLY HYMN.

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7279, 5 October 1933, Page 2

CHARLES DICKENS’ ONLY HYMN.

The poem -which is given here is the one hymn that Dickens is known to have written. It appeared anonymously in tho Christmas number of “Household Words” for 1856. A clergman wrote to Dickens, who was then the editor of the puplication, thanking him for having thus conveyed to many readers such sincere and true religious sentiments. Dickens, in answering the note, confessed that ho himself was the author of the hymn, and declared that, although the words were supposed to be spoken by a child, they expressed his own personal feelings and belief: Hear my prayer, O heavenly father, Ere I lay me down to sleep: Bid Thy angels, pure and holy, Bound my bed their vigil keep My sine are heavy, but Thy mercy Ear outweighs them, every one; Down before Thy cross I cast them, Tasting in Thy help alone. Keep me through this night of peril Underneath its boundless shade; Take me to Thy rest, I pray Thee When my pilgrimage is mad© None shall measure out Thy patience By the span of human thought; Non© shall bound the tender mercies Which Thy Holy Son has bought Pardon all my past transgressions Give me strength for daye to some; Guide and guard me with Thy blessing Till Thy angels bid me home.