He Was Dying of Tuberculosis When He Wrote the World's Most Sung Hymn

In September of 1847, a dying pastor in a Devon fishing village climbed into his pulpit one last time, preached on the Lord's Supper, and told his congregation he was standing among them as a man already alive from the dead. Ten weeks later he was dead in Nice. The prayer he left behind is now sung by ninety thousand people at Wembley Stadium every year, and almost none of them know his name. This is the full story of Henry Francis Lyte and "Abide with Me," including the parts the inspirational retellings leave out. Sources B. G. Skinner, Henry Francis Lyte: Brixham's Poet and Priest (Exeter, 1974) Henry James Garland, Henry Francis Lyte and the Story of Abide With Me (1957) The Remains of the Late Rev. H. F. Lyte (1850) Leon Litvack, "Lyte, Henry Francis," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Faith Cook, Our Hymn Writers and Their Hymns (2005) Theology Made Worship exists to make the deep things accessible. Original hymns, hymn histories, and theology for people who were never handed the vocabulary.