Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

 

Many of you may be familiar with the children’s nighttime prayer above. Some of you probably even recited that exact prayer every night before bed. I had a version of this prayer printed on a piece of paper and hung on the wall of my bedroom when I was a young boy. I remember reading the prayer nightly before going to bed. However, the version I had on my wall was not the gentle, coddling one above. My version was from the 17th century New England Primer. It was decidedly darker in tone:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
If I should die before I 'wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

It starts off the same…”Now I lay me down to sleep.” “I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” So far so good. Peaceful sleep, praying to the Lord, asking Him to keep my soul. Calming, soothing, and theologically sound. But then it takes a turn, a darker one: “If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” What! All of a sudden we are discussing dying in our sleep, and the Lord “taking my soul” like the grim reaper! This is the opposite of calming and soothing! This was enough to cause a child to pull the covers up tight around their chin and ask for the nightlight to be left on.

It makes me think of other childhood songs and lullabies. For instance:

Rock a bye baby in the tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

What a beautiful, reassuring, gentle lullaby to sing to your baby…not! What were these people in the 1700’s thinking anyway! I guess life was hard back then, and the stuff they taught their kids was proof.

Here’s another fun little tune for children:

Ring around the rosie,
A pocket full of posies.
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down!

Some scholars say this 1800’s song sung by children while playing a game refers to people dying during the Black Plague in Europe during the 1600’s and 1700’s. The song is said to refer to a rosie ring on the skin which accompanied the plague, posie petals which were believed to ward off the sickness when carried with you, and those who “fall down” dead due to the plague are then cremated and turned to ashes. Again, pretty dark stuff for children to be singing!

Even songs we think of as happy and uplifting have darker additional verses not typically sung:

Jesus loves me—this I know,
For the Bible tells me so:
Little ones to him belong,—
They are weak, but he is strong.

Jesus loves me—he who died
Heaven's gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin,
Let his little child come in.

Jesus loves me—loves me still,
Though I'm very weak and ill;
From his shining throne on high,
Comes to watch me where I lie.

Jesus loves me—he will stay
Close beside me all the way.
Then his little child will take
Up to heaven for his dear sake
Anna Bartlett Warner -1860

This song sung in every sunday school class and children’s church in America, is believed to have been a poem written by Warner to comfort a dying child.

So how to wrap up this very dark and strange article…that’s a good question. I don’t have a great theological point to make here. I can’t really explain why these types of children’s songs contained such serious, dark topics like death. But, I can say that unfortunately it is true. Death is a part of life unfortunately. Due to Adam and Eve’s sin in Genesis chapter 3, death entered into the world. Both a physical death, and a spiritual death. The people who lived two or three centuries ago dealt with death a lot more than we do nowadays. We are sheltered from it somewhat it seems in modern times. Modern medicine has advanced in leaps and bounds, and more of the world has access to doctors and medicine than in the recent past even.

But, death still exists, and is the final outcome for all of us eventually. The bible tells us however that God knows the number of our days, and they are even written in a book. And, the bible also tells us that if our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, then we will not endure the “second death” as those not found written that book do. We will experience eternal life. Life with God, forever.

Now that is something to write a child’s song about….

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine,

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine,

Let it shine, all the time, let it shine.