Friends may falsify my trust,

Kindred also prove unjust,

Wound my heart and chill its glow,—
Thou art righteous! Be it so!

Warmth and comfort may decline;
Why at this should I repine?
Both to Thee, my God, I owe.
Thou art righteous! Be it so!
When by disappointment stung,
Hard it is for human tongue
Still to say, though tears may flow,
· Thou art righteous! Be it so!

Yet from mercy's aid shall spring
Strength of spirit still to sing
'Mid bereavement, pain, and woe,
Thou art righteous! Be it so!

PENINA MOÏSE

118

O MY CREATOR, WHEN THY MIGHT

O my Creator, when Thy might,

The wisdom of Thy ways,

The love, which sheds on all its light,
My wondering heart surveys;

I know not, while amazed I bow,
The song I ought to raise;

My God, my Lord, my Father, Thou
Must teach me how to praise.

Where'er my raptured eyes are turned,
Thy wonders I descry;

Thy heavens, with radiant gems adorned,
Lift up Thy praise on high.

O God of strength! who taught the sun
His lofty pathway far?

Who put his robes of glory on?

Who summons every star?

Who gives the wind its course or birth?
Who pours the welcome rain?

Who opens wide the lap of earth,
And heaps the golden grain?

O God of might and majesty!

O God, Thy boundless love,
Far as the clouds stretch o'er the sky,
Its mantle spreads above.

Thy name the sunshine and the storm,
Thy name the sea-sands raise;

66

Give," cries aloud the meanest worm, "Give my Creator praise!

"God made me," cries the stately tree

66

That with the tempest plays;

God," cries the little seed, "made me;
Give my Creator praise!"

Man, on whose frame Thy fearful hand

Such skill could so bestow;

Man, whose high reasoning soul can stand, And ask his God to know;

Man, made a king on earth to move,
Creation's noblest part,

In his own mould can daily prove
How good and great Thou art.

O, praise Him still, thou soul of mine,
And praise Him yet again;

O God our Father, praise be Thine!
Let all things say "Amen!"

CHRISTIAN F. GELLERT

Translation from the German by Rev. George Burgess

119

LIFELONG PRAISE

In God, the holy, wise, and just,
From childhood's tender years
Have I reposed, with perfect trust,
My changing hopes and fears.

From every page that time has turned,
Since that bright season fled,
Some useful lessons have I learned,
Some striking moral read.

The prize ambition keenly sought
A worthless bubble proved;

The web of gold, by av'rice wrought,
A mighty hand removed.

Oh, should my term of life exceed
Frail man's allotted days,

Until the last my prayer would plead

For strength to praise my God!

PENINA MOÏSE

120

GOD IS LOVE

God is love; His mercy brightens
All the paths in which we rove;
Bliss He wakes, and woe He lightens ;
God is wisdom, God is love.

Chance and change are busy ever;
Man decays, and ages move;
But His mercy waneth never;
God is wisdom, God is love.

E'en the hour that darkest seemeth

Will His changeless goodness prove;

From the gloom His brightness streameth;
God is wisdom, God is love.

He with earthly cares entwineth
Hope and comfort from above;
Everywhere His glory shineth;
God is wisdom, God is love.

SIR JOHN BOWRING

121

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER

Father of all, in every age,

In every clime adored

By saint, by savage, or by sage,

Jehovah, Jove, or Lord;

Thou great First Cause, least understood,
Who all my sense confined

To know but this, that Thou art good,
And I myself am blind—

If I am right, Thy grace impart
Still in the right to stay;
If I am wrong, O teach my heart
To find the better way.

Save me alike from foolish pride,
Or impious discontent;

At aught Thy wisdom has denied,
Or aught Thy goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.

This day be bread and peace my lot:

All else beneath the sun

Thou know'st if best bestowed or not;
And let Thy will be done.