Now All the Woods Are Sleeping

Now all the woods are sleep­ing

And night and still­ness creep­ing

O’er ci­ty

man

and beast;

But thou

my heart

awake thee

To pray­er awhile be­take thee

And praise thy mak­er ere thou rest.

O sun

where art thou van­ished?

The night thy reign hath ban­ished

Thy an­cient foe

the night.

Farewell

a bright­er glo­ry

My Je­sus shed­deth o’er me

All clear with­in me shines His light.

The last faint beam is go­ing

The gold­en stars are glow­ing

In yon­der dark-blue deep;

And such the glo­ry giv­en

When called of God to Heav­en

On earth no more we pine and weep.

The bo­dy hastes to slum­ber

These gar­ments now but cum­ber;

And as I lay them by

I pon­der how the spir­it

Puts off the flesh t’in­her­it

A shin­ing robe with Christ on high.

Now thought and la­bor ceas­es

For night the tired re­leas­es

And bids sweet rest be­gin:

My heart

there comes a mor­row

Shall set thee free from sor­row

And all the drea­ry toil of sin.

Ye ach­ing limbs! now rest you

For toil hath sore op­pressed you

Lie down

my wea­ry head:

A sleep shall once o’er­take you

From which earth ne’er shall wake you

Within a nar­row­er

cold­er bed.

My hea­vy eyes are clos­ing

When I lie deep re­pos­ing—

O soul and bo­dy

where are ye?

To help­less sleep I yield them

O let Thy mer­cy shield them

Thou sleep­less Eye

their guard­ian be!

My Je­sus

stay Thou by me

And let no foe come nigh me

Safe shel­tered by Thy wing;

But would the foe alarm me

O let him nev­er harm me

But still Thine an­gels round me sing!

My loved ones

rest se­cure­ly

From ev­ery per­il sure­ly

Our God will guard your heads;

And hap­py slum­bers send you

And bid His hosts at­tend you

And gold­en-armed watch o’er your beds.