Another Sunday, and another choice from BPW's Lent and Passiontide section...

This one takes me back to primary school days, rows of children standing in a hall, accompanied by a slightly out of tune piano, and not always having a clue what it all meant.  The haunting tune Heinlein remains a favourite, and I love this classic lenten hymn, even if the BPW version has lost some of the original poetry (I love the original line 'chilly dewdrops nightly shed' in verse 2):

Forty days and forty nights

You were fasting in the wild;

Forty days and forty nights

Tempted and yet undefiled.

Burning heat throughout the day,

Bitter cold when light had fled;

Prowling beast around your head,

Stones your pillow, earth you bed.

Let us your endurance share

And from earthly greed abstain,

With you watching unto prayer

With you strong to suffer pain.

Then if evil on us press,

Flesh or spirit to assail,

Victor in the wilderness,

Help us not to swerve of fail!

G H Smyttan altd.