O HOLY FATHER! just and true <br />Are all Thy works and words and ways, <br />And unto Thee alone are due <br />Thanksgiving and eternal praise! <br />As children of Thy gracious care, <br />We veil the eye, we bend the knee, <br />With broken words of praise and prayer, <br />Father and God, we come to Thee. <br />For Thou hast heard, O God of Right, <br />The sighing of the island slave; <br />And stretched for him the arm of might, <br />Not shortened that it could not save. <br />The laborer sits beneath his vine, <br />The shackled soul and hand are free; <br />Thanksgiving! for the work is Thine! <br />Praise! for the blessing is of Thee! <br />And oh, we feel Thy presence here, <br />Thy awful arm in judgment bare! <br />Thine eye hath seen the bondman's tear; <br />Thine ear hath heard the bondman's prayer. <br />Praise! for the pride of man is low, <br />The counsels of the wise are naught, <br />The fountains of repentance flow; <br />What hath our God in mercy wrought? <br />Speed on Thy work, Lord God of Hosts! <br />And when the bondman's chain is riven, <br />And swells from all our guilty coasts <br />The anthem of the free to Heaven, <br />Oh, not to those whom Thou hast led, <br />As with Thy cloud and fire before, <br />But. unto Thee, in fear and dread, <br />Be praise and glory evermore.<br /><br />John Greenleaf Whittier<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/hymn-ii/
