Words: Stanzas 1-4, , Sac­red Lyr­ics, 1820; stan­zas 5-6, , 1876.

Music: Evening Pray­er (Steb­bins), , 1878.

It rarely falls to the lot of any hymn to be sung under such try­ing cir­cum­stanc­es as was this, dur­ing the Box­er out­break in Chi­na, by a com­pa­ny of be­lea­guered mis­sion­ar­ies who had ga­thered to­ge­ther one night in great fear lest they should have to suf­fer the fate of so ma­ny who were giv­ing up their lives ra­ther than de­ny their Lord. The fol­low­ing ac­count of the sing­ing is fur­nished by Miss Helen Knox Strain, one of the mis­sion­ar­ies pre­sent that night.

“The Woman’s Un­ion Mis­sion­ary So­ci­e­ty has a mag­ni­fi­cent work just out­side of the ci­ty of Shang­hai. No harm had come to us up to this time, but ser­i­ous threats and un­plea­sant ru­mors were rife; we dared not so much as put our heads out at night, though for­ty lit­tle sol­dier-men played at keep­ing us safe. Our mis­sion­ar­ies have two cen­ters at that place, and the they meet oft­en for pray­er and con­sult­a­tion. At this par­ti­cu­lar time the ru­mors were so fright­ful, and the threats to burn our homes that ve­ry night so dis­tress­ing, that we had a mem­or­a­ble meet­ing. Sep­a­rat­ed from home and friends, fac­ing death in a far-off land, and full of ten­der­est feel­ing, we lift­ed our hearts in song…

“Out of the storm each soul, re­new­ing its strength, mount­ed up with wings as ea­gles and found peace in the se­cret of His pre­sence.

“Our Sav­iour breathed, in ve­ry deed, an ‘even­ing bless­ing’ up­on us, the frag­rance of which re­mains ev­en un­to this day. The last verse of the hymn, ‘Should swift death this night o’er­take us,’ was omit­ted. It seemed too prob­a­ble it might. We want­ed on­ly to think of the safe-keep­ing, and such, thank God, it proved to be.”