Hymn. (For Peace, For Health...) Poem by Susan Evance

FOR peace, for health, for sweet content,
And hope's enchanting sway,
For these, by thee, my maker! sent,
My grateful thanks I pay.

E'er since I first beheld the light,
Thou Lord my friend hast been,
And many a beam of rapture bright
Has ting'd life's glowing scene.

Though sometimes Sorrow o'er my sky
Her sable cloud did throw,
And taught my 'youthful heart to sigh,
And taught my tears to flow;

Yet, gracious God! full well I know
In mercy kind 'twas given;
It wean'd my soul from things below,
And fix'd my thoughts on Heaven.

O throughout life's bewild'ring maze,
Do thou my Father, still
Teach me to love religion's ways,
And seek to do thy will.

Whene'er the plants of pleasure grow
In virtue's sacred shade,
Grateful I'd mark the flow'rets blow,
And pluck them ere they fade.

And if along my lonely way
Affliction's thorn appears,
Let resignation's hand allay
The anguish of my tears.

Thus may each scene my footsteps tread,
By thy kind guidance, be
A path whose various windings lead
My God! to bliss- and Thee!