Poems, Sacred and Moral/Hymn 4
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 ledA 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 worthClear'd from affliction's dark disguise.
Yon clouds, a mass of sable shadeTo mortals gazing from below,By Angels from above survey'dWith universal sunshine glow.