At even ere the sun was set

At even ere the sun was set. Henry Twells* (1823-1900). Written in 1868, and first published in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M. Twells had been asked for an evening hymn for the Appendix by Sir Henry Williams Baker*. It was written in a classroom, while invigilating an examination. An ordained schoolmaster, unoccupied and aware of the night falling, Twells began to reflect on the healing miracles of Christ, and penned the hymn. The text he had in mind was undoubtedly: ‘And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased’ (Mark 1:32). The hymn soon became popular, and in 1895 the Strand magazine included it in an article on notable hymns and...