Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.

Anti-Slavery Poems

In War Time
Thy Will be Done

WE see not, know not; all our way

Is night,—with Thee alone is day:

From out the torrent’s troubled drift,

Above the storm our prayers we lift,

Thy will be done!

The flesh may fail, the heart may faint,

But who are we to make complaint,

Or dare to plead, in times like these,

The weakness of our love of ease?

Thy will be done!

We take with solemn thankfulness

Our burden up, nor ask it less,

And count it joy that even we

May suffer, serve, or wait for Thee,

Whose will be done!

Though dim as yet in tint and line,

We trace Thy picture’s wise design,

And thank Thee that our age supplies

Its dark relief of sacrifice.

Thy will be done!

And if, in our unworthiness,

Thy sacrificial wine we press;

If from Thy ordeal’s heated bars

Our feet are seamed with crimson scars,

Thy will be done!

If, for the age to come, this hour

Of trial hath vicarious power,

And, blest by Thee, our present pain,

Be Liberty’s eternal gain,

Thy will be done!

Strike, Thou the Master, we Thy keys,

The anthem of the destinies!

The minor of Thy loftier strain,

Our hearts shall breathe the old refrain,

Thy will be done!

1861.