Poems (Lambert)/"Forsake Me Not"
"FORSAKE ME NOT."Extract from the Sermon of the Rev. Dr. Kingtson Goddard.
OH, Father, in mine hours of ease, In youth's sweet, thoughtless day,When winter's bright, and e'en storms please, And all the earth seems gay:Oh, let me not forget Thy name,For then, Thy guardian care I claim.
Forget me not, in Life's full bloom, When wealth and pleasures cloy;Satiety, my only gloom, My trouble, too much joy.Oh, Father, let me not forget,But keep Thee in remembrance yet.
Forget me not! When friends forsake— When envy's tainted breathBlows nettles in my path, which make My Life, a life of death—Then let remembrance come to me,For, Father, Lord, they spared not thee.
When pleasures vanish, and joys lay Within the tomb of mirth,When gold seems but as worthless clay, And darkness shrouds the earth,Let me see lightness, Lord, through Thee,Father, my guide, and sunshine be!
Lord, when my locks are as the snow, And time's relentless handsHave bowed my form, furrowed my brow, And severed kindred bands:Look on me, then, with pitying eye—Forget me not, shall be my cry.
And when Life's tide is ebbing fast, And I, Thy child, shall standBetween the future and the past, Withdraw not then Thy hand.Unworthy, Father, though I be,Forget me not! I trust in Thee!
Aye, by Thy pangs, in that dread hour, Thy death, that I might live:I place myself in Thy kind power— Forgive, oh God, forgive!Oh, let my bark, manned by Thy love,Seek haven in Thy courts above.
Then, Lord, let not Thy servant wait, A suppliant for Thy grace,But open wide the pearly gate— Let me behold Thy face.Father, whatever be my lot,This is my prayer—Forsake me not!
Richmond, Staten Island, Jan. 20th, 1867.