Miscellaneous Pieces in Verse and Prose ‎#96

96. Desiring a cheerful resignation to the divine will

Why breathes my anxious heart the frequent sigh?
Why from my weak eye drops the ready tear?
Is it to mark how present blessings fly?
Is it that griefs to come awake my fear?

O may I still with thankful heart enjoy
The various gifts indulgent heaven bestows!
Nor let the ungrateful diffidence destroy
The present good with fears of future woes.

Nor let me curious ask if dark or fair
My future hours, but in the hand divine
With full affiance leave my every care,
Be hope, and humble resignation mine.

Celestial guests! your smile can cheer the heart
When melancholy spreads her deepening gloom:
O come, your animating power impart,
And bid sweet flowers amid the desart bloom.

Yes, here and there, amid the dreary wild,
A spot of verdure cheers the languid eye:
And now and then, a sun-beam warm and mild,
Sheds its kind influence from a clement sky.

My God, my guide, be thou for ever near,
Support my steps, point out my devious way,
Preserve my heart from every anxious fear,
Gild each dark scene with thy enlivening ray.

Be earth's quick changing scenes or dark, or fair,
On thy kind arm, O bid my soul recline:
Be heaven-born hope (kind antidote of care)
And humble cheerful resignation mine.

Text Information

• First Line: Why breathes my anxious heart the frequent sigh?
• Title: Desiring a cheerful resignation to the divine will
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1780

Tune Information

(No tune information)