1864

"HIS TENDER MERCIES ARE OVER ALL HIS WORKS"

by William Cullen Bryant HIS TENDER MERCIES ARE OVER ALL HIS WORKS -

Our Father! to thy love we owe

All that is fair and good below.

Life, and the health that makes life sweet,

Are blessings from thy mercy seat. -

Oh Giver of the quickening rain!

Oh Ripener of the golden grain!

From Thee the cheerful day-spring flows,

Thy balmy evening brings repose. -

Thy frosts arrest, thy tempests chase

The plagues that waste our helpless race,

Thy softer breath, o'er land and deep,

Wakes Nature from her winter sleep. -

Yet, deem we not that thus alone

Thy bounty and thy love are shown,

For we have learned with higher praise

And holier names to speak thy ways. -

In woe's dark hour our kindest stay,

Sole trust when life shall pass away,

Teacher of hopes that light the gloom

Of Death, and consecrate the tomb. -

Patient with headstrong guilt to bear,

Slow to avenge and kind to spare,

Listening to prayer and reconciled

full soon to thy repentant child. - -