Scripture Verse

For you do not know when the master…comes. Mark 13:35

Introduction

Words: Eli­za­beth H. Reed, in The Hymn Book, 1842.

Music: J. Cal­vin Bu­shey (1847–1929) (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Reed or Bush­ey (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Introduction

A tram-car man was pass­ing along the broad­way at Dept­ford, Eng­land, where some Chris­tians were sing­ing at an open-air meet­ing. Oh, do not let the Word de­part… He felt the force of the ap­peal and hast­ened home to pray. Though he knelt down and plead ear­nest­ly, no light, or peace, or rest came.

A fort­night passed away in this state of un­cer­tain­ty, and on the fol­low­ing Sun­day he was so mi­se­ra­ble that he could not go to his work on the tram-car. In the ev­en­ing he went to a cha­pel and re­mained for the pray­er-meet­ing.

The lead­er of the open-air meet­ing, in which the hymn was sung a fort­night be­fore, hap­pened to be pre­sent, and he saw the young man weep­ing and cov­er­ing his face with his hand­ker­chief. Pray­ing the Lord to give him a word for this trou­bled soul, the lead­er asked him, Are you trust­ing Christ? No, but I am seek­ing Him, the man re­plied. And there he found Him, to the joy of his soul.

Thus, in the pro­vi­dence of God, the Chris­tian work­er who was the cause of pro­duc­ing the an­xi­ety, with­out know­ing at the time any of the cir­cum­stanc­es, was al­so the means of re­mov­ing it. This is but one of the num­er­ous in­stanc­es of the use­ful­ness of Why not To-night? in ev­an­gel­is­tic meet­ings.

Sankey, pp. 307–08

Lyrics

O do not let the Word de­part,
And close thine eyes against the light;
Poor sin­ner, hard­en not your heart,
Be saved, O to­night.

Refrain

O why not to­night?
O why not to­night?
Wilt thou be saved?
Then why not tonight?

Tomorrow’s sun may ne­ver rise
To bless thy long de­lud­ed sight;
This is the time, O then be wise,
Be saved, O to­night.

Refrain

Our Lord in pi­ty lin­gers still,
And wilt thou thus His love re­quite?
Renounce at once thy stub­born will,
Be saved, O to­night.

Refrain

Our bless­èd Lord re­fus­es none
Who would to Him their souls unite;
Believe on Him, the work is done,
Be saved, O to­night.

Refrain

Another adaptation, from Sal­va­tion Ar­my Music (Lon­don: Sal­va­tion Ar­my Book Department, 1900), set to Confidence (Youens) (🔊 pdf nwc):

Oh, do not let thy Lord de­part,
And close thine eyes against the light;
Poor sin­ner, hard­en not thy heart;
Thou wouldst be saved—why not to­night?
Thou wouldst be saved—why not to­night?

Tomorrow’s sun may ne­ver rise
To bless thy long-de­lud­ed sight;
This is the time!—oh, then, be wise!
Thou wouldst be saved—why not to­night?
Thou wouldst be saved—why not to­night?

Our God in pi­ty lin­gers still;
Oh, wilt thou thus His love re­quite?
Renounce at length thy stub­born will—
Thou wouldst be saved—why not to­night?
Thou wouldst be saved—why not to­night?

Our bless­èd Lord re­fus­es none
Who would to Him their souls unite;
Then be the work of grace be­gun:
Thou wouldst be saved—why not to­night?
Thou wouldst be saved—why not to­night?