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A poem delivered in the first congregational church in the town of Quincy, May 25, 1840

the two hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town

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HYMN OF THE PILGRIMS.

1.

Hear us, almighty Father!
No light but thy great eye above us shines!
Darker and darker gather
The shades of twilight through the moaning pines—
Hear while we pray!

2.

Hear, us, thou great Jehovah!
When, wandering through the tangled wilderness,
Cloud after cloud goes over,
Forsake us not in our loneliness!
Shield us to-night!

3.

Guard us from every danger,
Thou, who hast ever been our sun and shield,
When trials deeper and stranger
Swept o'er us, as the wind sweeps o'er the field!
O guard us still!

4.

From the wild foeman's arrow—
From the dread pestilence that walks unseen—

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From sickness and from sorrow,
And more than all, from hearts and lips unclean,
Save us, O God!

5.

And unto thee, great Spirit,
All that we are and have would we commit;—
Not for thy children's merit,
But through thy own free grace, so clearly writ,
Keep us, we pray!