A Morning Hymn

“Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning.” – Psalm cxliii. 8.

O God! not those bright heav’ns alone    

   Can cheer our pilgrim way;

We ask our sunshine from thy throne,

   Thy smile – to make our day.

So let thine angel-guard around*

   Our paths of life prepare;

That we may find them holy ground,

   With thy sweet presence there.

Then, though the desert land we tread,

   The land where terrors meet,                                                                    10

Thy banner shall be o’er our head,

   Thy light before our feet.

And rudest wilds must yield their flow’rs,

   Where’er thy pilgrims be;

And love forget the weary hours,

   While duty toils for thee.

* Psalm xci. 11.

Text: Timothy Whelan, ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011),  vol. 5, pp. 197-98; Saffery, Poems, pp. 181-2; also published in Leifchild, Original Hymns, no. 316, under the heading "A morning hymn," with scripture references omitted.