2.24.2017 POEMS ABOUT GOD

308  OH GOD, I NEED THEE!

O God, i need Thee!
when morning crowds the night away
and the tasks of waking seize my mind,
I need Thy Poise,

O God, i need Thee!
when clashes come with those
who walk the way with me,
I need Thy smile

O God,  i need Thee!
when the path to take before me lies,
i see it - courage flees -
i need Thy Faith.

O God, i need Thee!
when the day's worked is done,
 tired, discouraged, wasted;
I need Thy Rest.
Author unknown

COME NOW!

come, now, you most careful layers of T - squares,
you tedious extractors of square roots and cube roots,
you stooping squinters through microscopes,
you merciless probers and meticulous dissectors,
you would-be plotters of the curves of life,
mathematically sure or else unbelieving;
you scorners of all but what mechanics
can drearily prove:  i challenge you,
even in your pride, even in your own citadel,
using those very instruments in which alone
you have such almighty faith,
draw for me now the design, the plan
of the universe; tell me how this earth, a star, is hung,
diurnally turning for the refreshment of darkness and dew;
with your unfailing knowledge instruct me now
who sensitively fringed the retiring gentian's beauty;
or with your calipers, infallibly certain, bound for me
the mystic wild parabola of love,
Archibald Rutledge

GOD IS NEAR

'Mid the darkest scenes of life
God is near!
in the turmoil and the strife
God is near!
when the angry waves roll high
and the clouds obscure the sky,
through the storm there comes a cry:
God is near!

though the dearest friend depart
God is near!
He can heal the broken heart,
God is near!
He can heal the broken heart,
God is near!
do the tears fall thick and fast
as you ponder o'er the past?
there is One whose love will last,
God is near!
In the midst of deepest grief
God is near!
He alone can bring relief,
God is near!
when the hand of death so cold
snatches loved ones from the fold,
and you suffer grief untold,
God is near!
God and tell it far and wide
God is near! take it to the darkest soul,
let the message onward roll'
Hark! the bells of Heaven toll!
God is near!
Oswald J. Smith

THE WORLD CAN NEITHER GIVE NOR TAKE

the world can neither give nor take,
nor can it comprehend,
that peace of God, which Christ hath bought,
that peace which knows no end.

the burning bush was not consumed
whilst God remained there;
the three, when Jesus made the fourth,
found fire as soft as air.

God's furnace doth in Zion stand;
but Zion's God sits by
as the refiner views his gold
with an observant eye.

His thoughts are high, His love is wise,
His wounds a cure intend;
and, tho' He doth not always smile,
He loves unto the end.

His love is constant as the sun,
though clouds come oft between;
and, could my faith but pierce these clouds,
it might be always seen.

yet i shall ever, ever sing,
and Thou forever shine;
I have Thine own dear pledge for this;
Lord, Thou art ever mine.
Selina, Countess of Huntingdon

HYMN OF THE WALDENSES

hear, Father, hear Thy faint afflicted flock
cry to Thee, from the desert and the rock;
while those, who seek to slay Thy children hold
blasphemous worship under roofs of gold;
and the broad goodly lands, with pleasant airs
that nurse the grape and wave the grain are theirs.

yet better were this mountain wilderness,
and this wild life of danger and distress, -
watching by night and perilous flight by day,
and meeting in the depths of earth to pray,
better, far better, than to kneel with them
and pay the impious rite Thy laws condemn .

Thou, Lord, dost hold the thunder; the firm land
tosses in billows when it feels Thy hand;
Thou dashest nation against nation, then
stillest the angry world to peace again.
Oh, touch their stony hearts who hunt Thy sons, -
the murderers of our wives and little ones.

Yet, mighty God, yet shall  Thy frown look forth
unveiled and terribly shall shake the earth.
then the fool power of priestly sin and all
its long upheld idolatries shall fall.
Thou shalt raise up the trampled and oppressed,
and Thy delivered saints shall dwell in rest.
William Cullen Bryant

HE GIVETH MORE - Annie Johnson Flint

He giveth more grace when the burden grows greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;
to added affliction He addeth mercy,
to multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
when our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
when we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
our Father's full giving is only begun.

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
for out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth and giveth and giveth again.

316  I SAW GOD WASH THE WORLD

I saw God wash the world last night
with His sweet showers on high,
and then, when morning came, I saw
Him hang it out to dry.

He washed each tiny blade of grass
and every trembling tree;
He flung His showers against the hill,
and swept the billowing sea.

the white rose is a cleaner white,
the red rose is more red,
since God washed every fragrant face
and put them all to bed.

there's not a bird, there's not a bee
that wings along the way
but is a cleaner bird and bee.
than it was yesterday.

I saw God wash the world last night.
Ah, would He had washed me
as clean of all my dust and dirt
as that old white birch tree.
-William L. Stidger

317  from THE ETERNAL GOODNESS

I see the wrong that round me lies.
I feel the guilt within;
I hear, with groan and travail-cries,
the world confess its sin.

Yet, in the maddening maze of things,
and tossed by storm and flood,
to one fixed trust my spirit clings:
I know that God is good!
-John Greenleaf Whittier

I FOUND GOD - Mary Afton Thacker

sophisticated, worldly-wise,
I searched for God and found Him not,
until one day, the world forgot,
I found Him in my baby's eyes.

THE ANCIENT THOUGHT

the round moon hangs like a yellow
lantern in the trees
that lie like lace against the sky,
Oh, still the night! Oh, hushed the
breeze -
Surely God is nigh.
Watson Kerr

318  GOD'S GRANDEUR

the world is charged with the grandeur of God.
it will flame out, like shining from shook foil'
it gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crusted. Why do men then now not wreck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
and all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil'
and wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

and for all this, nature is never spent;
there lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
and though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs -
because the Holy ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with Ah! bright wings.
Author unknown

THE WORLD - Henry Vaughan

I saw Eternity the other night,
like a great ring of pure and endless light,
all calm as it was bright;
all round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,
driven by the spheres
like a vast shadow moved; in which the world
and all her train were hurled.
the doting lover in his quaintest strain
did there complain;
near him, his lute, his fancy and his flights,
wit's sour delights,
with gloves and knots, the silly snares of pleasure,
yet his dear treasure,
all scattered lay, while he his eyes did pour
upon a flower.

the darksome statesman, hung with weights and woe
like a thick midnight-fog, moved there so slow,
He did not stay, nor go'
condemning thoughts - like sad eclipses -scowl
upon his soul.
and clouds of crying witnesses without
pursu'd him with one shout.

319  yet digg'd the mole and lest his ways be found,
worked under ground,
where he did clutch his prey; (but one did see
That policy);
churches and altars fed him; perjuries
were gnats and flies;
it rained about him blood and tears; but he
drank them as free.

the fearful miser on a heap of rust
sat pining all his life there, did scarce trust
his own hands with the dust,
yet would not place one piece above, but lives
in fear of thieves.
thousands there were as frantic as himself
and hugged each one his pelf.
the downright epicure placed heaven in sense
and scorn'd pretence,
while others, slipp'd into a wide excess,
said little less;
the weaker sort, slight trivial wares enslave,
who think them brave;
the poor, despised Truth sat counting by
their victory.

yet some, who all this while did weep and sing.
and sing and weep, soared up into the Ring;
but most would use no wing.
O fools (said I )  thus to prefer dark night before true light!
to live in grots and caves and hate the day
because it shows the way,
the way, which from this dead and dark abode
leads up to God,
a way, which from this dead and dark abode
Leads up to God.
a way where you might tread the sun and be
more bright than he.
but as i did their madness so discuss,
one whisper'd thus,
'This Ring the Bridegroom did for none provide,
but for His bride.

320  LIGHT SHINING OUT OF DARKNESS

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
and rides upon the storm.

deep in unfathomable mines
of never failing skill,
he treasures up His bright designs,
and works His sovereign will.

ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
the clouds ye so much dread
and big with mercy and shall break
in blessings on your head.

judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
but trust Him for His grace;
behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour:
the bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
and scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
and He will make it plain.
William Cowper

THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD

and nature, the old nurse, took
the child upon her knee,
saying, 'here is a story book
my father hath writ for thee.
come, wander with me, she said,
'in regions yet untrod
and read what is still unread
in the manuscripts of God.'
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

MAN'S HAND - AND GOD'S

once I heard a prima donna sing,
and marveled at such art;
but today an oriole's fluted note
lights a candle in my heart.

one day i walked thro' a lovely place
where wonderful paintings hung,
but i climbed this ridge just now and looked
at the hills God's hand has flung.

i stood last year where I could see
a city, magnificent - grand;
but I glance just now where the sunset clouds
are by an Artist's hand.

today I might have viewed a work
of engineering skill;
but I caught the heavenly scent of plums
blooming upon this hill. Mae Traller

321  O LITTLE SELF  -  John Masefield

O little self, within whose smallness lies
all that man was and is and will become,
atom unseen that comprehends the skies
and tells the tracks by which the planets roam;
that, without moving, knows the joys of wings,
the tiger's strength, the eagle's secrecy,
and in the hovel can consort with kings,
or clothe a God with His own mystery.
O with what darkness do we cloak Thy light,
what dusty folly gather Thee for food,
thou who alone art knowledge and delight,
the heavenly bread, the beautiful, the good.
O living self, O God, O morning star,
Give us Thy light, forgive us what we are.

322  SOMETIME - May Riley Smith

sometime, when all life's lessons have been learned,
and sun and stars forevermore have set,
the things o'er which we grieved with lashes whet,
will flash before us out of life's dark night,
as stars shine most in deeper tints of blue;
and we shall see how all God's plans were right,
and how what seemed reproof was love most true.

and we shall see how, while we frown and sigh,
god's plans go on as best for you and me;
how, when we called, He heeded not our cry,
because His wisdom to the end could see,
and even prudent parents disallow
too much of sweet to craving babyhood,
so god, perhaps, is keeping from us now
Life's sweetest things, because it seemeth good.

and if, sometimes, commingled with life's wine,
we find the wormwood and rebel and shrink,
be sure  a wiser had than yours or mine
pours out this portion for our lips to drink.
and if some friend we love is lying low,
where human kisses cannot reach his face.,
Oh, do not blame the loving Father so.
but wear your sorrow with obedient grace.

and you shall shortly know that lengthened breath
is not the sweetest gift God sends His friend,
and that, sometimes, the sable pall of death
conceals the fairest boon His love can send.
if we could push ajar the gates of life,
and stand within, and all god's working see,
we could interpret all this doubt and strife,
and for each mystery could find a key!

but not to-day. then be content, poor heart!
God's plans, like lilies, pure and white, unfold;
we must not tear the close-shut leaves apart,
time will reveal the calyxes if gold,
and if, though patient toil, we reach the land
where tired feet, with sandals loose, may rest,
when we shall clearly know and understand -
I think that we will say, 'God knew the best!'

324 LUTHER'S HYMN - Martin Luther (translated by Frederic Henry Hedge)

a might fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper He amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing.
for still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and, armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.

did we in our won strength confide,
our striving would be losing,  -
were not the right man on our side,
the man of God's own choosing.
dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus , it is He,
Lord Sabaoth His name,
from age to age the same,
and He must win the battle.

and tho' this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed
his truth to triumph through us.
the Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for Him,
his rage we can endure
for lo! his doom is sure,
one little word shall fell him.

the word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth;
the spirit and the gifts are ours
through Him who with us sideth.
let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also:
the body they may kill,
God's truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

'GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

back of the loaf is the snowy flour,
and back of the flour the mill,
and back of the mill is the wheat and the shower,
and the sun and the Father's will.

Maltbie D. Babcock

325  JEHOVAH TSIDKENU - The Lord Our Righteousness

I once was a stranger to grace and to God,
I knew not my danger and felt not my load;
though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me.

I oft read with pleasure, to soothe or engage,
isaiah's wild measure and John's simple page;
but e'en when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenu seemed nothing to me.

like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll,
I wept when the waters went over his soul;
yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree
Jehovah Tsidkenu - 'twas nothing to me.

when free grace awoke me, by light from on high,
then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;
no refuge, no safety in self could I see-
Jehovah Tsidkenu my Saviour must be.

my terrors all vanished before the sweet name;
my guilty fears banished, with boldness I came
to drink at the fountain, life-giving and free -
Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me.

Jehova Tsidkenu! my treasure and boast,
jehovah Tsidkenu I ne'er can be lost;
in Thee I shall conquer by flood and by field -
My cable, my anchor, my breastplate and shield!

even treading the valley, the shadow of death,
this watchword shall rally my faltering breath;
for while from life's fever my God sets me free,
Jehovah Tsidkenu my death-song shall be.
Robert Murray McCheyne

326  RIGHT IS RIGHT

for right is right, since God is God,
and right the day must win;
to doubt would be disloyalty,
to falter would be sin.
Frederick William Faber

327  OH GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope in years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home -

under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
sufficient is Thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.

before the hills in order stood,
or earth received her frame,
from everlasting Thou art God,
to endless years the same.

A thousand ages in Thy sight
are like an evening gone;
short as the watch that ends the night
before the rising sun.

Time, lie an ever-rolling stream
bears all its sons away;
they fly, forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope in years to come,
be Thou our guard while troubles last,
and our eternal home.
isaac Watts

328  THE MAJESTY AND MERCY OF GOD

Oh, worship the King all glorious above;
Oh, gratefully sing His power and His love;
our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days
pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.

Oh, tell of His might, Oh, sing of His grace,
whose robe is the light, whose canopy space;
His chariots of wrath the deep thunder clouds form,
and dark is his path on the wings of the storm.

the earth, with its store of wonders untold,
almighty, Thy power hath founded of old,
hath stablished it fast by a changeless decree,
and round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea.

Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite?
it breathes in the air, it shines in the light,
it streams form the hills, it descends to the plain,
and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

frail children of dust and feeble as frail
in Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to  fail.
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend.

WEARY, LONELY, RESTLESS, HOMELESS - Father Ryan

Weary hearts! weary hearts! by cares of life oppressed,
ye are wandering in the shadows, ye are sighing for the rest;
there is darkness in the heavens, and the earth is bleak below,
and the joys we taste today may tomorrow turn to woe.
weary hearts! God is rest.

Lonely hearts! lonely hearts! 'tis but a land of grief;
ye are pining for repose, ye are longing for relief;
what the world hath never given, kneel and ask of God above.
and your grief shall turn to gladness if you lean upon His love.
Lonely hearts! God is love.

Restless hearts! restless hearts! ye are toiling night and say,
and the flowers of life, all withered, leave but thorns along your way;
ye are waiting, ye are waiting till your toilings here shall cease,
and your ever-restless throbbing is a sad, sad prayer for peace.
Restless hearts! God is peace.

Broken hearts! broken hearts! ye are desolate and lone,
and low voices from the past o'er your present ruins moan;
in the sweetest of your pleasures there was bitterest alloy,
and a starless night hath followed on the sunset of your joy,
Broken hearts! God is joy.

Homeless hearts! homeless hearts ! through the dreary, dreary years,
Ye are lonely, lonely wanderers, and your way is wet with tears;
in bright or blighted places, wheresoever ye may roam,
ye look away from earthland and ye murmur, 'where is Home?'
Homeless hearts! God is home.

329  NEARER TO THEE

nearer, my God, to Thee,
nearer to Thee!
E'en though it be a cross
that raiseth me;
still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!

though like the wanderer,
the sun gone down,
darkness be over me
my rest a stone;
yet in my dreams I'd be
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!

there let the way appear
steps unto heaven;
all that Thou send'st to me
in mercy given;
Angels to beckon me
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!

then, with my waking thoughts
Bright with Thy praise,
out of my stony griefs
Bethel I'll raise;
so by my woes to be
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!

or if on joyful wing
cleaving the sky,
sun, moon and stars forgot,
upward I fly,
still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!

Sarah Flower Adams

AFTER ST. AUGUSTINE

sunshine let it be or frost,
storm or calm, as Thou shalt choose;
though Tine every gift were lost,
Thee Thyself we could not lose.
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

GOD AND THE STRONG ONES

'We have made them fools and weak? said the Strong Ones:
'We have bound them, they are dumb and deaf and blind;
We have crushed them in our hands like a heap of crumbling sands,
We have left them naught to seek or find;
they are quiet at our feet! said the Strong Ones;
'We have made them one with wood and stone and clod;
serf and laborer and woman, they are less than wise or human! -
'I shall raise the weak! saith God.

'They are stirring in the dark! said the Strong Ones,
'They are struggling, who were moveless like the dead.
we can hear them cry and strain hand and foot against the chain,
we can hear their heavy upward tread...
what if they are restless? said the Strong Ones;
'What if they have stirred beneath the rod?
Fools and weak and blinded men, we can tread them down again -
'Shall ye conquer Me? saith God.

'they will trample us and bind! said the Strong Ones;
'We are crushed beneath the blackened feet and hands;
all the strong and fair and great they will crush from out the state;
they will whelm it with the weight of pressing sands -
they are maddened and are blind! said the Strong Ones;
'black decay has come where they have trod;
they will break the world in twain if their hands are on the rein -
'What is that to Me? saith God.

'Ye have made them in their strength, who were Strong Ones,
Ye have only taught the blackness ye have known:
these are evil men and blind? Ay, but molded to your mind!
how shall ye cry out against your own?
Ye have held the light and beauty I have given
far above the muddied ways where they must plod:
ye have builded this your lord with the lash and with the sword-
reap what ye have sown! saith God.

Margaret Widdemer

331  A CLOSER WALK WITH  GOD

O for a closer walk with God,
a clam and heavenly frame;
a light to shine upon the road
that leads me to the Lamb!
where is the blessedness I knew
when first I saw the Lord?
where is the soul-refreshing view
of Jesus and His Word!
what peaceful hours I then enjoyed,
How sweet their memory still!
but they have left an aching void
the world can never fill.
Return, O Holy Dove, return,
sweet messenger of rest;
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn,
and drove Thee from my breast!
the dearest idol I have known
whate'er that idol be;
help me to tear it from Thy throne,
and worship only Thee.
WilliamCowper