Hymn
How heavy is the night
How heavy is the night
That hangs upon our eyes,
Till Christ with his reviving light
Over our souls arise!
Our guilty spirits dread
To meet the wrath of heaven;
But, in his righteousness arrayed,
We see our sins forgiven.
Unholy and impure
Are all our thoughts and ways:
His hands infected nature cure
With sanctifying grace.
The powers of hell agree
To hold our souls in vain;
He sets the sons of bondage free,
And breaks the cursed chain.
Lord, we adore thy ways
To bring us near to God,
Thy sovereign power, thy healing grace,
And thine atoning blood.
How heavy is the night — Text from The Voice of Praise, 1873. Public domain. https://yeshuanow.com/hymns/how-heavy-is-the-night
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Questions about this hymn
Who wrote How heavy is the night?
The words of How heavy is the night were written by Isaac Watts; the version here was published in 1873. The library holds 248 more hymns by Isaac Watts, including God Reconciled in Christ and The Greatness of God.
Is How heavy is the night public domain?
Yes. The words here are taken from The Voice of Praise, published in 1873. Works published before 1931 are out of copyright in the United States, so you can print, project, perform and record this hymn freely. How we source and check every hymn.
What is the metre of How heavy is the night?
How heavy is the night is in Short Metre (6.6.8.6). Hymns in the same metre can usually be sung to the same tunes — for example, O Lord, Our Heavenly King, The Spirit in Our Hearts and Evening Song.