Now the Day Is Over
159

Text: Sabine Baring- Gould (1834–1924)
Music: Joseph Barnby (1838–1896)
Tune name: MERRIAL

This short, evocative hymn is a perfect conclusion to a late afternoon or evening church service or family home evening. Originally written for children, the prayer for protection during the night is expressed in the simplest possible language. It has become a popular hymn among all age groups wherever Christian hymns are sung.

Sabine Baring- Gould wrote the words of this hymn in 1867 for the children of the parish over which he was minister. The Barnby tune was written a year later. The curious tune name has an interesting history. When Dr. Charles Robinson published this hymn in his Laudes Domini in 1884, he chose to name the tune after his daughter, Mary L. Robinson. The tune name later took the form MERRIAL (Mary L.).

The two verses in our hymnal form a sufficient and satisfying whole, but the original hymn actually has six additional verses. The four that are most frequently reprinted as part of the hymn are these:

Grant to little children / Visions bright of thee;
Guard the sailors tossing / On the deep, blue sea.

Comfort every sufferer / Watching late in pain;
Those who plan some evil, / From their sins restrain.

Through the long night watches, / May thine angels spread
Their white wings above me, / Watching round my bed.

When the morning wakens, / Then may I arise
Pure and fresh and sinless / In thy holy eyes.

J. Spencer Cornwall noted that when the Tabernacle Choir toured Europe in 1955, they concluded every concert by singing “Now the Day Is Over” (see Stories of Our Mormon Hymns, 127).