The poorest of the poor are we

Representative Text

The poorest of the poor are we,
But precious are our souls to Thee,
Whom, though Thou art the Lord of all,
Our Heavenly Father we may call.

If meanly clad and sparely fed,
Give us this day our daily bread,
For all that live and move, and are,
In Providence, Thy bounty share.

To Thee, when the young ravens cry,
Thy hands their humble wants supply;
Alike on Thee, their unknown Friend,
The lion and the lamb depend.

Thine air, Thy sunshine, dews, and showers,
In season make the lily's flowers
More beautiful to look upon,
Than on his throne, King Solomon.

368
The widow, old and desolate;
The orphan in his low estate;
The slave, the outcast of mankind,
Thee their almighty Helper, find.

All times, and every where, Thine eye
Looks down upon us from the sky;
Could we look up by light divine,
Ours might be ever fix'd on Thine.

While every word we speak, Thine ear
Through all creation's sounds can hear,
By ours, if open'd to Thy Word,
Thy voice from heaven would here be heard.

Moment on moment, breath by breath,
Our pilgrim life draws nearer death:
Each breath, each moment, make us be
More meet for immortality.

O God, most merciful and just,
Shall we not put in Thee our trust?
In grief and pain, to calm our fears,
Comfort our hearts, and wipe our tears.

Sacred Poems and Hymns

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Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	The poorest of the poor are we
Author:	James Montgomery
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Language:	English

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Notes

The poorest of the poor are we. J. Montgomery. [Ragged Schools.] Under the date of 1849, Holland says in his Memoirs of Montgomery, vol. vii. p. 216:—

"We [Mr. J. Everett and himself] found that our entrance had arrested his pen in the midst of transcribing a hymn which he had been requested to compose for the use of Ragged Schools. On being requested to favour us with a hearing of the verses, he read what he had written, but with such an involuntary accompaniment of deep feeling that we felt more pain than pleasure in the affecting incident."

This hymn is in 9 stanzas of 4 lines in Montgomery's Original Hymns, 1853. In its full form it is not in common use but st. ix. vi.-viii, are given in Martineau's Hymns, &c, 1873, No. 373, as "O God, most merciful and just."

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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