Christian! answer boldly: "Well I know thy trouble, O My servant true; Thou art very weary, I was weary too; But that toil shall make thee Some day all my own, And the end of sorrow Shall be near my throne." D Hymn of Peace HYMN OF PEACE John Greenleaf Whittier EAR Lord and Father of mankind, In deeper reverence, praise. In simple trust like theirs who heard, The gracious calling of the Lord, - Oh, sabbath rest by Galilee! Oh, calm of hills above Where Jesus knelt to share with thee Interpreted by love! Drop thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of the Peace. T HYMN HE spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, Th' unwearied Sun from day to day The work of an almighty hand. Soon as the evening shades prevail, Whilst all the stars that round her burn, Having my law the seventh time disobey'd, I struck him, and dismiss'd With hard words and unkiss'd, His Mother, who was patient, being dead. But found him slumbering deep, With darken'd eyelids, and their lashes yet From his late sobbing wet. And I, with moan, Kissing away his tears, left others of my own; For, on a table drawn beside his head, He had put, within his reach, A box of counters and a red-vein'd stone, A piece of glass abraded by the beach, And six or seven shells, A bottle with bluebells, And two French copper coins, ranged there with careful art, To comfort his sad heart. So when that night I pray'd To God, I wept, and said: Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath, Not vexing thee in death, And Thou rememberest of what toys We made our joys, How weakly understood Thy great commanded good, Then, fatherly not less Than I whom Thou hast moulded from the clay, Thou'lt leave Thy wrath, and say, "I will be sorry for their childishness." |