249. Father, to Thee we look in all our sorrow

Frederick L. Hosmer, 1840-1929

A hymn of comfort written in 1881 on the death of a member of the author’s congregation. The hymn was published in Hosmer’s Thought of God, 1st series, 1885. The last lines are particularly striking:

“Yet shalt thou praise Him when these darkened furrows,

Where now He ploweth, wave with golden grain.”

MUSIC. STRENGTH AND STAY. For comments on J. B. Dykes, the composer of this tune, see [Hymn 1].