Christian! when, overwhelmed with grief and care,
Thou prayest for the help that thou dost need,
As shipwrecked mariner for life will plead,
O, then for faith pour forth the fervent prayer!
‘Tis faith alone life’s heavy ills can bear.
O, mark her calm, far-seeing, quickening eye,
Full of the light of immortality!
It tells of worlds unseen, and calls us there;
That look of hers can save thee from despair.
When sorrow, like thick darkness, gathers round,
And all life’s flowers are fading in the dust,
Faith lifts our drooping vision from the ground,—
Says, that the hand that smites us yet is just;
That human agony hath ever found
The mighty God a never-failing trust.