Hymn 197. God my Only Happiness

         When fill’d with grief, my anxious heart

                     To thee, my God, complains,

         Sweet pleasure mingles with the smart,

                     And softens all my pains.

         Earth flies with all her soothing charms,                                            

                     Nor I the loss deplore;

         No more, ye phantoms, mock my arms,

                     Nor teaze my spirit more.

         I languish for superior joy

                     To all that earth bestows;                                                          

         For pleasure which can never cloy,

                 Nor change, nor period knows.

         Still, must the scenes of bliss remain

                     Conceal’d from mortal eyes?

         And must my wishes rise in vain,                                                         

                     And never reach the skies?

         My God, O could I call thee mine

                     Without a wavering fear,

         This would be happiness divine,

                     A heaven of pleasure here!                                                        

         This joy, my wishes long to find,

                     To this my heart aspires,

         A bliss, immortal as the mind,

                     And vast as its desires!

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 1, pp. 128-29; Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, no. 197; Poems, 1780, vol. 1, pp. 139-41; MS, Steele Collection, STE 3/1/1 no. 78, Angus Library, Regents Park College,  Oxford.