Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways;
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.
In simple trust like theirs who heard,
Beside the Syrian sea,
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word,
Rise up and follow Thee.
O Sabbath rest by Galilee,
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity,
Interpreted by love!
With that deep hush subduing all
Our words and works that drown
The tender whisper of Thy call,
As noiseless let Thy blessing fall
As fell Thy manna down.
Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.
Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm.
Great lines:
Start with the byline. John Greenleaf Whittier. An actual poem written by an actual poet. The literary quality of the entire piece is just wonderful.
Then there's the premise. Whittier wrote the poem in response to the craziness he saw at a Shaker revival meeting. Instead of more emotional fervor, his call is for reverence, purity, and above all sanity. The greatest testimony of the presence of God in a person's life is not how "out of control" they can get, but how ordered and calm their lives are in spite of the craziness of life.
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