Saviour, breathe an evening blessing

Saviour, breathe an evening blessing. James Edmeston* (1791-1867). From Edmeston’s Sacred Lyrics (1820). It was prefaced by an anecdote: ‘At night their short evening hymn, “Jesu Mahaxaroo,” – “Jesus forgive us,” stole through the camp’. SALTE’S TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA.’ The description of this simple event in an account of an early exploration must have moved Edmeston to write his hymn, although he was careless about the reference, which is to Henry Salt’s Voyage to Abyssinia, and travels into the interior of that country, …in 1809 and 1810 (1814) (this was understandably repeated by JJ, p. 995). It has two 8-line stanzas: Saviour, breathe an evening blessing,   Ere repose our spirits seal;...