How sweet to be allowed to pray
To God, the Holy One,
With filial love and trust to say,—
"Father, thy will be done!"
We in these sacred words can find
A cure for every ill;
They calm and soothe the troubled mind,
And bid all care be still.
O, let that will, which gave me breath
And an immortal soul,
In joy or grief, in life or death,
My every wish control!
O, could my heart thus ever pray,
Thus imitate thy Son!
Teach me, O God, with truth to say,—
"Thy will, not mine, be done!"
[SABBATH DAY.]
How sweet upon this sacred day,
The best of all the seven,
To cast our earthly thoughts away,
And think of God and heaven!
How sweet to be allowed to pray
Our sins may be forgiven;
With filial confidence to say,
"Father, who art in heaven"!
With humble hope to bend the knee,
And, free from folly's leaven,
Confess that we have strayed from thee,
Thou righteous Judge in heaven!
And if to make all sin depart
In vain the will has striven,
He who regards the inmost heart
Will send his grace from heaven.