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The following is another essay the writer of music notes wrote for the Lutheran Service Book Hymnal Companion to be published by CPH.

John Ellerton wrote six stanzas of this hymn in 1866 for the closing service of the Malpas, Middlewich and Nantwich, Cheshire, Choral Association. In the 1868 supplement to Hymns, Ancient and Modern, Ellerton, always advocating brevity in order to increase a hymn’s clarity, truncated the original hymn to four stanzas, making other textual alterations in order to broaden the emphasis of the hymn to one of greater corporate, rather than individual, concern. Having edited several hymnals and an illustrious hymnologist, Ellerton exhibited an acute awareness of the different purposes for which hymns may be used, in this case editing his own hymn whereby it expresses “. . . a faith or feeling such as is, or ought to be, common to the whole or the greater part of the congregation.”[1] Falling within that particularly Victorian genre of hymnody represented by Henry Lyte, John Mason Neale’s translations from the Greek, or Ellerton’s own “The Day Thou Gavest,” this text was intended for evening use. The final stanza was sung at Ellerton’s funeral on 20 June, 1893.

Ellerton’s text typifies Victorian themes while exhibiting a thorough knowledge and facile application of scriptural theology. Although 100 years into the Industrial Revolution, having promulgated a largely urban culture, the pastoral and rural aspects in this hymn text are conspicuous, especially ironic given Ellerton’s enthusiastic work on behalf of railway workers and his status as chairman of an educational committee of a national railroad. Unlike most of his other hymns which are addressed to God the Father, this is addressed intentionally to God the Son. Ellerton’s use of “rest” and “peace” imagery belies his urban setting and no doubt sought to quell restless activity with a reminder of Jesus’ blessing of His disciples in John 14: 27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.”

Conservatism and caution, uniquely melded with technological progress, characterized the Victorian era, allowing Ellerton to exploit light and dark imagery as a metaphor for faith. The third stanza prays for peace “. . . throughout the coming night, turn Thou for us its darkness into light,” alluding to the many scripture passages, particularly in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus affirms that He is “. . . the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8: 12) The advances of nineteenth-century science had threatened to erode the Church’s credibility in an era where skepticism was increasingly disseminating through society. Whereas earlier ages would pray for physical safety during each night, Ellerton here equates faith with a spiritual light that alleviates the fear that may come with unrelenting advances in scientific and technological progress. Likewise, the hymn divulges that characteristic Victorian theme of pilgrimage, reflecting Jesus’ words in John 15: 19, “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” The fourth stanza prays for “peace throughout this earthly life, our balm in sorrow and our stay in strife,” a life which finds its “conflict cease” only when God’s voices calls “to Thine eternal peace.” This eschatology bespeaks a hope and faith which finds fulfillment only after death, set within the context of intentionally simple, even child-like, vocabulary and universal imagery, all designed to enhance its utility as a devotional aid for both the sophisticated scholar and simple laborer alike.

Housman, Henry. John Ellerton: Being a Collection of his Writings on Hymnology together with a Sketch of his Life and Words. London: SPCK, 1896.

Luff, Alan. ‘Ellerton, John (1826–1893)’, rev. Leon Litvack, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy.libraries.smu.edu/view/article/37392, accessed 22 July 2009]

Thring, Godfrey, ed. A Church of England Hymn Book. London: W Skeffington and Son, 1880.

[1] A letter from 3 July, 1868, quoted in Henry Housman, John Ellerton: Being a Collection of Writings on His Hymnal Together with a Sketch of His Life and Work. New York City: Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1896, p 79.