40

Saturday Evening

I

Safely through another week
God has brought us on our way;
Let us now a blessing seek
On th’ approaching Sabbath-day:
Day of all the week the best,
Emblem of eternal rest.

II

Mercies multiplied each hour
Through the week our praise demand;
Guarded by Almighty power,
Fed and guided by his hand.
Though ungrateful we have been⁠—
Only made returns of sin.

III

While we pray for pard’ning grace,
Through the dear Redeemer’s name,
Show thy reconciled face,
Shine away our sin and shame.
From our worldly care set free,
May we rest this night with thee.

IV

When the morn shall bid us rise
May we feel thy presence near!
May thy glory meet our eyes
When we in thy house appear!
There afford us, Lord, a taste
Of our everlasting feast.

V

May thy gospel’s joyful sound
Conquer sinners⁠—comfort saints;
Make the fruits of grace abound,
Bring relief for all complaints.
Thus may all our Sabbaths prove
Till we join the church above!

Where this text comes from

First published in Olney Hymns (1779). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2] [3]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-15.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns, book-2.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L30.

Cite this poem

John Newton (1725–1807). “Saturday Evening.” First published in Olney Hymns (1779). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-newton/saturday-evening/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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