Still, Still with Thee

When I was a child, we'd listen to 'The Mennonite Hour' on the radio. We'd hear choirs and groups singing hymns for a whole hour. We'd also play records of all kinds of good music. I think I have Johnny Cash's 'Gospel Road' memorized. I'd play it again and again. I stayed home from church one day last month due to sickness, and it was on TV. I knew each word to every song and speaking part. We had a record of an all male choir singing hymns. I can hear them singing this hymn right now. It was one of my mother's favorite but she would avoid it because it made her cry.

"Still, Still With Thee"

Still, still with Thee,
When purple morning breaketh,
When the bird waketh,
And the shadows flee;
Fairer than morning,
Lovelier than the daylight,
Dawns the sweet consciousness,
I am with Thee.

So shall it be
at last,
in that bright morning
When the soul waketh,
and life's shadows flee;
Oh, in that hour,
fairer than day-light dawning,
Shall rise the glorious thought-
I am with Thee.

Harriet Beecher Stowe