Words: Unknown author, possibly 18th Century (So praeceps rapitur, proxima nox adest); translated from Latin to English by , Masque of Mary, 1858. Music: Twilight, J. H. Hopkins (?). Alternate tune:
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The sun is sinking fast,
The daylight dies;
Let love awake, and pay
Her evening sacrifice.
As Christ upon the cross
His head inclined,
And to His Father’s hands
His parting soul resigned;
So now herself my soul
Would wholly give
Into His sacred charge
In Whom all spirits live;
So now beneath His eye
Would calmly rest,
Without a wish or thought
Abiding in the breast;
Save that His will be done,
Whate’er betide;
Dead to herself, and dead
In Him to all beside.
Thus would I live: yet now
Not I, but He,
In all His power and love,
Henceforth alive in me.
One sacred Trinity,
One Lord divine,
May I be ever His,
And He forever mine.