Poem IV – For the Morning
JESUS, by whose grace I live,
From the fear of evil kept,
Thou hast lengthen’d my reprieve,
Held in being while I slept.
With the day my heart renew;
Let me wake thy will to do.
Since the last revolving dawn
Scatter’d the nocturnal cloud,
O, how many souls have gone,
Unprepar’d, to meet their God
Yet thou dost prolong my breath,
Nor hast seal’d my eyes in death.
O that I may keep thy word,
Taught by thee to watch and pray
To thy service, dearest Lord,
Sanctify th’ present day:
Swift its fleeting moments haste,
Doom’d, perhaps, to be my last.
Crucify’d to all below,
Earth shall never be my care
Wealth and honour I forego,
This my only wish and care,
Thine in life and death to be,
Now and to eternity.