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257
HYMN OF CHARITY.
[_]
Written to be sung at a concert for the benefit of the “Home for the Friendless.” Air, “Marseilles Hymn.”
To thee, O Lord, whose treasures endless
And love eternal must endure,
We cry for help to help the Friendless,—
For home to give the homeless poor!
Pale Misery with tresses hoary,
Ere life's midsummer, haunts the street,
And Woe, on tender, infant feet,
By tears and shivering tells its story:
Unsheltered youth is toled
Anear the tempter's snare!
For these poor lambs a shepherd's fold
God help us to prepare!
And love eternal must endure,
We cry for help to help the Friendless,—
For home to give the homeless poor!
Pale Misery with tresses hoary,
Ere life's midsummer, haunts the street,
And Woe, on tender, infant feet,
By tears and shivering tells its story:
Unsheltered youth is toled
Anear the tempter's snare!
For these poor lambs a shepherd's fold
God help us to prepare!
Thou, in whose Father-House a mansion
We hope our final home to be,
A mantle here of wide expansion,
O, give thine angel, Charity!
Thy children no abiding city
May claim or seek 'mid scenes below;
With love each bosom fire, to glow
Till every heart dissolve in pity.
While Faith the seed may sow,
To thee the plant she leaves;
Let her, though weeping forth she go,
Return with precious sheaves.
We hope our final home to be,
A mantle here of wide expansion,
O, give thine angel, Charity!
Thy children no abiding city
May claim or seek 'mid scenes below;
With love each bosom fire, to glow
Till every heart dissolve in pity.
While Faith the seed may sow,
To thee the plant she leaves;
Let her, though weeping forth she go,
Return with precious sheaves.
258
O Thou, who once for man's salvation
Didst lay thy heavenly glories by,
And, ere the mighty consummation,
An infant, in a manger lie;—
When near the Cross, with sorrow bending,
For us to purchase life and rest,
The heirs of Want were thy bequest,
To all thy friends, through time descending!
In power, when Thou return,
The waking dead shall see,—
And they who helped the Poor shall learn
What then they did for Thee!
Didst lay thy heavenly glories by,
And, ere the mighty consummation,
An infant, in a manger lie;—
When near the Cross, with sorrow bending,
For us to purchase life and rest,
The heirs of Want were thy bequest,
To all thy friends, through time descending!
In power, when Thou return,
The waking dead shall see,—
And they who helped the Poor shall learn
What then they did for Thee!
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