University of Virginia Library

1.

[When Lord, O when shall we]

When Lord, O when shall we
Our dear salvation see?
Arise, arise,
Our fainting eyes
Have long'd all night; and 'twas a long one too.
Man never yet could say

18

He saw more then one day,
One day of Eden's seven:
The guilty hours there blasted with the breath
Of Sin and Death,
Have ever since worn a nocturnal hue.
But Thou hast given us hopes that we
At length another day shall see,
Wherein each vile neglected place,
Gilt with the aspect of Thy face,
Shall be like that, the porch and gate of Heaven.
How long, dear God, how long!
See how the nations throng:
All humane kinde
Knit and combin'd
Into one body, look for Thee their Head.
Pity our multitude;
Lord we are vile and rude,
Headless and sensless without Thee,
Of all things but the want of Thy blest face;
O haste apace!
And Thy bright Self to this our body wed,
That through the influx of Thy power,
Each part that er'st confusion wore
May put on order, and appear
Spruce as the childhood of the year,
When Thou to it shalt so united be.
Amen.