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| LORD, in this dust Thy sovereign voice | |
| First quickened love divine; | |
| I am all Thine,—Thy care and choice, | |
| My very praise is Thine. | |
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| I praise Thee, while Thy providence | 5 |
| In childhood frail I trace, | |
| For blessings given ere dawning sense | |
| Could seek or scan Thy grace; | |
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| Blessings in boyhood’s marvelling hour, | |
| Bright dreams, and fancyings strange; | 10 |
| Blessings, when reason’s awful power | |
| Gave thought a bolder range; | |
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| Blessings of friends, which to my door | |
| Unasked, unhoped, have come; | |
| And, choicer still, a countless store | 15 |
| Of eager smiles at home. | |
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| Yet, Lord, in memory’s fondest place | |
| I shrine those seasons sad, | |
| When looking up I saw Thy face, | |
| In kind austereness clad. | 20 |
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| I would not miss one sigh or tear, | |
| Heart-pang, or throbbing brow; | |
| Sweet was the chastisement severe, | |
| And sweet its memory now. | |
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| Yes, let the fragrant scars abide, | 25 |
| Love-tokens in Thy stead, | |
| Faint shadows of the spear-pierced side, | |
| And thorn-encompassed head. | |
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| And such Thy tender force be still | |
| When self would swerve or stray; | 30 |
| Shaping to Truth the froward will, | |
| Along Thy narrow way. | |
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| Deny me wealth; far, far remove | |
| The lure of power or name; | |
| Hope thrives in straits, in weakness Love, | 35 |
| And Faith in this world’s shame. | |
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