Classic Poem

O Lord of everlasting praise,
Through anxious life's entangled maze,
Our never-failing guide;
Thou art our hope from race to race,
Our refuge and the dwelling place
In which our souls reside

Ere on this earth were yet reliev'd
The mountains, ere this earth receiv'd
Her being or her frame
Before all worlds supreme thy will,
From ever, and from ever still,
Eternal is thy name.

Debas'd with error and abuse,
Thy terrors man to dust reduce,
That penitence may grow—
Again thy love paternal cries—
Arise, ye sons of men arise,
Return to bliss from woe.

For years thy creatures, as they flee,
Are all responsible to thee,
The present as the past;
Ev'n thousands in thy perfect sight,
Are as the watch of yester-night
When their account is cast.

Thou bidst them off into the deep
Of vast eternity to sleep,
And in their peace remain;
While others like the grass succeed,
For their determin'd goal to speed,
Nor e'er revolve again.

Grass! in the morning fresh and green,
With many a various flow'r between,
A blessing for our eyes;
By noon to full perfection grown,
Ere evening darkens it is mown,
And like the gath'rer dies.

For thy fierce wrath contracts our span,
And this whole edifice of man
Is troubled and diseas'd;
And we of bitt'rest anguish taste,
And to our dissolution haste,
When thou art once displeas'd.

The crimes, with which we are disgrac'd,
Before thy judgment seat are plac'd
Their dreadful doom to hear;
Our lurking sins which hate the day,
All in thy sight themselves display,
And at thy word appear.

Our days to their conclusion run,
Since wrath against thy sinful son
Has made our frame more frail;
With pain from youth to age we climb,
And all the tenor of our time
Is like a trav'llers tale.

Of human life th' allotted length
Is sev'nty years, uncommon strength
Another ten survives;
Yet is that strength but toil and grief,
Whose grace of farther proof is brief,
And soon whose end arrives.

Who knows the pow'r and blest effect
Of thy dread anger? thine elect
Who thy just hand admire;
To those alone that act amiss,
And thwart their everlasting bliss,
The Lord prolongs his ire.

So teach us, gracious, to review
The past of nature, and pursue
The future in our mind;
To wisdom that we may apply
Our hearts, and learn like men to die,
The task for life assign'd.

O be thou placable by pray'r,
And stand between us and despair,
How long wilt thou postpone?
To these our off'rings as they burn,
Do thou propitiate thy return,
And let our tears atone.

O fill us with the sweet content
Of thy free grace, as we repent;
Thy saving health mature
For a perpetual resource
To joy and gladness, while the course
Of nature shall endure.

Our joys according to the date
Of all our woes proportionate,
Thou judge, immensely mild;
Let peace commence, where bondage ends,
And Canaan multiply amends
For Egypt and the wild.

The work of thy stupendous hand,
Which leads us to the promis'd land,
To these thy sheep compleat;
That glory may be giv'n to thee
From us and our posterity,
Which thou in peace shalt seat.

And may the glorious rays that beam
From forth the majesty supreme,
Each body bless and soul;
Prosper the sweat of every brow
And hand industrious—yea, do thou
Our handy work controul.