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450
The Prayer of Jabez
The prayer of Jabez, too, should be our prayer:“Keep me from evil, that it may not grieve.”
How hard the sight of wrong and ill to bear,
When we cannot the sufferers relieve!
The child of sorrow, he for others' woe,
As if it were his own, did deeply feel;
Though he had naught of riches to bestow,
Nor power their wrongs and miseries to heal.
God heard his prayer, and answered his request;
And by his sympathy, did help impart
Unto the poor, the suffering, and opprest,
That healed their wounds and robbed them of their smart;
Nor suffered cruel deeds, nor words unkind
To grieve his heart, or rankle in his mind.
Poem No. 543; c. 9 November 1872
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