From: A Poem Delivered in The First Congregational Church in the Town of Quincy, May 25, 1840, The Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town.
Author: Christopher Pearse Cranch
Published: James Munroe and Company Boston
1.
Hear us, almighty Father!
No light but thy great eye above us shines!
Darker and darker gather
The shades of twilight through the moaning pines—
Hear while we pray!
2.
Hear us, thou great Jehovah!
When, wandering through the tangled wilderness,
Cloud after cloud goes over,
Forsake us not in our loneliness!
Shield us to-night!
3.
Guard us from every danger,
Thou, who hast ever been our sun and shield,
When trials deeper and stranger
Swept o’er us, as the wind sweeps o’er the field!
O guard us still!
4.
From the wild foeman’s arrow—
From the dread pestilence that walks unseen—
From sickness and from sorrow,
And more than all, from hearts mid lips unclean,
Save us, O God!
5.
And unto thee, great Spirit,
All that we are and have would we commit;—
Not for thy children’s merit,
But through thy own free grace, so clearly writ,
Keep us, we pray!
—————
And felt they not that He was ever near?
They were not all alone—for God was there.
And whispered peace amid their fervent prayer.—
He who dwells not in temples made with hands,
But in the heart that yields to His commands,
Shone round about them-and the Spirit’s ray
Turned all their darkest midnights into day.
Yet soon a different scene is painted there;—
Hark! those are not the sounds of work and prayer!
What! are the Pilgrims dancing! can it be
That the stem Puritans make all this glee!
Are these who trowl the merry catch the same
Forlorn and pious-visaged men, who came
Seeking a resting place— a shrine for prayer!
Hark, how their noise ascends the evening air!
See bow the trees are hung with blazing lights!
Is this the way they pass their days and nights!
List to the song of Morton’s jovial crew,*
While with light feet they dance away the dew.
——————————
* For an account of Thomas Morton, and the revelries of Merry-Mount (now Mount Wollaston in the town of Quincy),see Whitney’s History of Quincy—and the authorities he consults. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s beautiful Legend of Merry-Mount, in his Twice told Tale, will be recalled to many minds.
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