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Home  »  Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse  »  Providence

Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

By Henry Vaughan (1622–1695)

Providence

 
  SACRED and secret hand!
By whose assisting, swift command
The angel shewed that holy well,
Which freed poor Hagar from her fears,
And turned to smiles the begging tears        5
Of young distressèd Ishmael.
 
  If I Thy servant be,
Whose service makes ev’n captives free,
A fish shall all my tribute pay,
The swift-wing’d raven shall bring me meat,        10
And I, like flowers, shall still go neat,
As if I knew no month but May.
 
  Poor birds this doctrine sing;
And herbs, which on dry hills do spring
Or in the howling wilderness,        15
Do know Thy dewy morning hours,
And watch all night for mists and showers,
Then drink and praise Thy bounteousness.