Classic Poem

Part I.

E XTOLL , and our good God adore.
Whose sea of mercy hath no shore.
O you by tyrants late oppress'd,
Now from your servile yokes releas'd,
Praise Him Who your redemption wrought,
And home from barbarous nations brought.
From where the morn her wings displays,
From where the ev'ning crowns the days;
Beneath the burning zone, and near
The influence of the freezing bear.
They in unpeopled deserts stray'd,
The heav'ns their roof, the clouds their shade.
Their souls with thirst and hunger faint;
None by, to pity their complaint.
When to the Lord their God they cried,
His mercy their extremes supplied.
He led them through the wilderness,
And gave them cities to possess.
O you, His goodness celebrate,
His acts to all the world relate!
For He in foodless deserts fed
The hungry with celestial bread.
From wond'ring rocks new currents roll,
To satisfy the thirsty soul.

Part II.

Those rebels who His counsel slight,
Imprison'd in the shades of night;
Horrors of guilt their souls surprise;
When humbled with their miseries,
They to the Lord address'd their pray'rs,
His mercy comforts their despairs,
From darkness draws, dissolves their gyves,
And from Death's jaws preserves their lives.
O you, His goodness celebrate,
His acts to all the world relate!
He breaks steel-bars and gates of brass,
To force a way for His to pass.
Those fools, whom pleasing sins entice,
Are punish'd by their darling vice.
Their souls all sorts of food distaste,
Whom troops of pale diseases waste.
When they to God direct their pray'rs
His mercy comforts their dispairs;
His word restores them from their graves,
And from a dreadful ruin saves.
O you, His goodness celebrate,
His acts to all the world relate!
Due praises to His altar bring,
And of your great redemption sing.

Part III.

Who sail upon the toiling main,
And traffic in pursuit of gain,
To such His pow'r is not unknown,
Nor wonders in the ocean shown.
At His command black tempests rise;
Then mount they to the troubled skies,
Thence sinking to the depths below,
The ship hulls as the billows flow;
And all aboard at ev'ry seel,
Like drunkards, on the hatches reel.
When they to God direct their pray'rs
His mercy comforts their despairs.
Forthwith the bitter storms assuage,
And foaming seas suppress their rage:
Then, singing, with a prosp'rous gale,
To their desired harbour sail.
O you His goodness celebrate,
His acts to all the world relate!
His fame in your assemblies raise,
And in the sacred senate praise.

Part IV.

He rivers turns t' a wilderness,
Springs dried up by the sun's access.
To scourge their sins, He makes the soil
Ungrateful to the owner's toil;
Turns sandy deserts into pools,
And parched earth with fountains cools.
There plants His hungry colonies,
Where strongly-fenced cities rise.
The fields their yellow mantles wear,
And spreading vines full clusters bear.
They infinitely multiply,
Their herds of no diseases die.
But when their sins His wrath incense,
Then famine, war, and pestilence
Their miserable lives devour.
Their princes He deprives of pow'r,
Who in the pathless wilderness
Conceal'd themselves from man's access.
The poor He raiseth from the ground;
Their families like flocks abound.
The just shall this with joy behold;
Th' unjust with fear and shame controll'd.
The wise these changes will record,
That they may know and serve the Lord.