With kind compassion hear my cry <br />O Jesu, Lord of life, on high! <br />As when the Summer's seasons beat <br />With scorching flame and parching heat, <br />The trees are burnt, the flowers fade, <br />And thirsty gaps in earth are made, <br />My thoughts of comfort languish so, <br />And so my soul is broke by woe. <br />Then on thy servant's drooping head, <br />Thy dews of blessing sweetly shed; <br />Let those a quick refreshment give <br />And raise my mind, and bid me live. <br />My fears of danger while I breath, <br />My dread of endless hell beneath, <br />My sense of sorrow for my sin, <br />To springing comfort, change within, <br />Change all my sad complaints for ease, <br />To chearful notes of endless praise; <br />Nor let a tear mine eyes employ <br />But such as owe their birth to joy: <br />Joy transporting sweet and strong, <br />Fit to fill and raise my song, <br />Joy that shall resounded be <br />While days and nights succeed for me: <br />Be not as a Judge severe, <br />For so thy presence who may bear? <br />On all my words and actions look, <br />(I know they're written in thy book) <br />But then regard my mournful cry <br />And look with Mercy's gracious eye, <br />What needs my blood since thine will do <br />To pay the debt to justice due. <br />O tender mercy's art divine! <br />Thy sorrow proves the cure of mine, <br />Thy dropping wounds, thy woful smart, <br />Allay the bleedings of my heart: <br />Thy death, in death's extreme of pain, <br />Restores my soul to life again. <br />Guide me then for here I burn <br />To make my Saviour some return. <br />I'll rise, (if that will please him still <br />And sure I've heard him own it will) <br />I'll trace his steps and bear my cross <br />Despising ev'ry grief and loss; <br />Since he despising pain and shame, <br />First took up his, and did the same.<br /><br />Thomas Parnell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-soul-in-sorrow/
