Poems, Sacred and Moral/Hymn 4

by Thomas Gisborne

HYMN IV.

FOR A PERSON IN SICKNESS.

 

"O Father! glorify thy name—”
So pray'd at woe's approach my Lord.
Disease corrodes this mortal frame:
O Father! be thy Name adored.

Though life's unruffled days had flown,
Ere yet was past her vernal prime;
And Sickness o'er my head has strewn,
The snows of age before their time:

Why fear the path of grief to tread;
Why, Father! shrink from thy decree:
If thus my longing soul be led
A safer, shorter, way to Thee?

On wings of Faith, o'er fogs of earth,
Thy servant, Father! teach to rise,
And view the blessing's native worth
Clear'd from affliction's dark disguise.

Yon clouds, a mass of sable shade
To mortals gazing from below,
By Angels from above survey'd
With universal sunshine glow.