Hymn 242. The Mysteries of Providence

         Lord, how mysterious are thy ways!

         How blind are we!  how mean our praise!

         Thy steps can mortal eyes explore?

         ’Tis ours, to wonder and adore.

         Thy deep decrees from creature sight                                                              

         Are hid in shades of awful night;

         Amid the lines, with curious eye,

         Not angel minds presume to pry.

         Great God, I would not ask to see

         What in futurity shall be;                                                                       

         If light and bliss attend my days,                                                          

         Then let my future hours be praise.

         Is darkness and distress my share?

         Then let me trust thy guardian care;

         Enough for me, if love divine,                                                               

         At length through every cloud shall shine.

         Yet this my soul desires to know,

         Be this my only wish below,

         “That Christ is mine!” – this great request

         Grant, bounteous God, – and I am blest.        

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 1, pp. 121-22; Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, no. 242 (all stanzas); Poems, 1780, vol. 1, pp. 131-32; no MS copy, Angus Library, Regents Park College,  Oxford.

 According to Julia Griffin, three poems are most likely missing from STE 3/1/1 between its no. 71 “Redemption by Christ Alone” (Poems, 1780, vol. 1, pp. 130-1) and its no. 75, ‘Desiring the Presence of God’ (Poems, 1780, vol. 1, pp. 136-7); these were almost certainly ‘The Mysteries of Providence’ and the next two poems printed in the 1780 Poems.