O God! Thy children, gathered here,
Thy blessing now we wait;
Thy servant, girded for his work,
Stands at the temple’s gate.
A holy purpose in his heart
Has deepened calm and still;
Now from his childhood’s Nazareth
He comes, to do Thy will.
O Father! keep his soul alive
To every hope of good;
And may his life of love proclaim
Man’s truest brotherhood!
O Father! keep his spirit quick
To every form of wrong;
And in the ear of sin and self
May his rebuke be strong!
And as he doth Christ’s footsteps press,
If e’er his faith grow dim,
Then, in the dreary wilderness,
Thine angels strengthen him!
And give him in Thy holy work
Patience to wait Thy time,
And, toiling still with man, to breathe
The soul’s serener clime.
O grant him many hearts to lead
Into Thy perfect rest;
Bless Thou him, Father, and his flock:
Bless! and they shall be blest!
Source: A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (15th ed.) #384
Longfellow, Samuel, B. A., brother of the Poet, was born at Portland, Maine, June 18, 1819, and educated at Harvard, where he graduated in Arts in 1839, and in Theology in 1846. On receiving ordination as an Unitarian Minister, he became Pastor at Fall River, Massachusetts, 1848; at Brooklyn, 1853; and at Germantown, Pennsylvania, 1860. In 1846 he edited, with the Rev. S. Johnson (q. v.), A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion. This collection was enlarged and revised in 1848. In 1859 his Vespers was published, and in 1864 the Unitarian Hymns of the Spirit , under the joint editorship of the Rev. S. Johnson and himself. His Life of his brother, the Poet Longfellow, was published in 1886. To the works named he contributed the follow… Go to person page >
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