Now God be with us, for the night is closing

Now God be with us, for the night is closing. Petrus Herbert* (ca. 1530-1571), translated by Catherine Winkworth* (1827-1878). Herbert’s hymn is dated 1566 in EG, from the book printed at Eibenschütz in that year (see the entry on ‘ Die Nacht ist kommen drin wir ruhen sollen’*). Winkworth’s translation was printed in The Chorale Book for England (1863), and later in her Christian Singers of Germany (1869), in six stanzas: Now God be with us, for the night is closing, The light and darkness are of His disposing; And ’neath His shadow here to rest we yield us,       For He will shield us. Let evil thoughts and spirits flee before us; Till morning cometh, watch, O Master, o’er us; To soul and...

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