Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind

JOHN G. WHITTIER, 1872

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,

Forgive our foolish ways!

Reclothe us in our rightful mind;

In purer lives Thy service find,

In deeper rev’rence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard,

Beside the Syrian Sea,

The gracious calling of the Lord,

Let us, like them, without a word,

Rise up and follow Thee.

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 Thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire

Thy coolness and Thy balm;

Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;

Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,

O still small voice of calm!