Sun of my soul! Thou Saviour dear, It is not night if Thou be near.

These lines are from John Keble’s evening hymn “Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear,” written in the early Victorian period and widely used in Anglican devotion. Keble (1792–1866), a leading figure in the Oxford Movement, helped renew emphasis on sacramental life and disciplined prayer within the Church of England. The hymn belongs to the tradition of private and communal night prayers (Compline), voicing a believer’s trust at day’s end. It became popular through 19th‑century hymnals and domestic worship, often sung at evening services, in schools, and in family prayers, where its imagery of sunset and approaching sleep frames Christ’s presence as the soul’s true light and security.

The speaker addresses Christ as the “sun” of the inner life: the source of warmth, guidance, and spiritual illumination. The paradox—“It is not night if Thou be near”—redefines darkness not as an external condition but as a state of abandonment or fear. With Christ present, even literal night (sleep, vulnerability, mortality) loses its terror and becomes a time of guarded rest. The couplet also gestures toward a larger Christian symbolism in which Christ’s light outlasts the setting sun, implying hope beyond daily endings and, by extension, beyond death. Keble’s diction is intimate and affective, turning doctrine into a personal, consoling prayer.