The Glory of the Sun

There is a safe and secret place
Beneath the wings Divine,
Reserved for all the heirs of grace,
Oh, be that refuge mine.

The least and feeblest there may 'bide
Uninjured and unawed;
While thousands fall on every side,
He rests secure in God.

The angels watch him on his way,
And aid with friendly arm;
And Satan, roaring for his prey,
May hate, but cannot harm.

He feeds in pastures large and fair
Of love and truth Divine;
O child of God, O glory's heir,
How rich a lot is thine!

A hand almighty to defend,
An ear for every call,
An honoured life, a peaceful end,
And heaven to crown it all!

The apostle Paul reminds us in that great chapter 15 of 1st Corinthians that the objects of God's creating have each their own particular "glory" - "there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars" etc. Human nature, being what is, very often tends to neglect the glory of one particular thing, because it happens to be "outshone" by the more-accepted glory of some other.

How very true this is of the hymns that we sing in the course of our public or private worship, and the glory of one particular piece that has fallen from some of our hymn writers' pens has paled into insignificance "another glory" that has every bit as much lustre about it, and could bless us just as much with its own particular glow and radiance. Probably one of the most outstanding examples of this is Henry Lyte's "Abide with me, fast falls the even tide." Who would deny the glory of such a hymn as that? And yet, the pen of Henry Lyte was that of a ready writer, and there are other hymns, glorious in their own sphere, which also fell from his heart. "Praise, my soul, the King of heaven," and so forth.

We reproduce here what we feel to be one of Lyte's greatest hymns - "there is a safe and secret place." For some reason or other the hymn is excluded from the majority of our hymn-books - outshone, perhaps! But, we feel that its sentiments should be better-known. It is Common Metre and particularly well-suited to the tune "Evan".