472 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
already altered the expression to autumn day. His final revision was
An autumn sun ;
Lead us, O Christ, our life-work done.
This he hoped to see generally adopted, but the revision has not been approved by others. The hymn was composed as an " afternoon " hymn, as in most of the parishes in that part of Somersetshire, in which I lived, the second service was nearly always held in the afternoon, and not in the evening, whilst all the hymns in the hymn-books in common use were for the late evening or night. I wrote "The radiant morn hath passed away " to supply this want. Several of my hymns were written in consequence of some want of this kind, felt either by myself or others ; but most of them, I think, though I have never made any calculations, arose almost spontaneously from thoughts that happened to be running in my mind at the time.
Hymn 922. Fading like a lifetime ends another day. THOMAS BOWMAN STEPHENSON, B.A., D.D. (765).
Written about 1873 ; published in Methodist Sunday School Hymn- ook, 1879.
Hymn 923. God, who madest earth and heaven. REGINALD HEBER, D.D. (28), and RICHARD WHATELY, D.D.
Dr. Whately (1787-1863) became Principal of St. Alban s Hall, Oxford, 1825 ; Archbishop of Dublin, 1831.
The first verse was published in Bishop Heber s Hymns, 1827 ; the second, by Archbishop Whately, is a free rendering of the ancient Compline antiphon, sung daily to the Nunc Dimittis at the Compline service, Salva nos, Domine, vigi lantes, custodi nos dormientes, ut vigilemus in Christo, et requiescamus in pace.
T. Darling s Hymns, 1855, joins the two verses, and stanza 2 is appended to the Archbishop s Lectures on Prayer, 1860, with several translations of German hymns by his eldest daughter. God that madest was the original form.
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