Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
|
O SACRED Providence, who from end to end | |
Strongly and sweetly movest! shall I write | |
And not of Thee, through whom my fingers bend | |
To hold my quill? shall they not do Thee right? 1 | |
|
Of all the creatures both in sea and land | 5 |
Only to man Thou hast made known Thy ways, | |
And put the pen alone into his hand, | |
And made him secretary of Thy praise. | |
|
Man is the world’s high priest: he doth present | |
The sacrifice for all; while they below | 10 |
Unto the service mutter an assent, | |
Such as springs use that fall, and winds that blow. | |
|
He that to praise and laud Thee doth refrain | |
Doth not refrain unto himself alone, | |
But robs a thousand who would praise Thee fain, | 15 |
And doth commit a world of sin in one. | |
|
Wherefore, most sacred Spirit, I here present | |
For me and all my fellows praise to Thee: | |
And just it is that I should pay the rent, | |
Because the benefit accrues to me. | 20 |
|
Thou art in small things great, nor small in any, | |
Thy even praise can neither rise, nor fall. | |
Thou art in all things one, in each thing many: | |
For thou art infinite in one and all. | |