Heavenly Father, Sovereign Lord

Heavenly Fa­ther

sov­er­eign Lord

Ever faith­ful to Thy word

Humbly we our seal set to

Testify that Thou art true.

Lo! for us the wilds are glad

All in cheer­ful green ar­rayed

Opening sweets they all dis­close

Bud and blos­som as the rose.

Hark! the wastes have found a voice

Lonely de­serts now re­joice

Gladsome hal­le­lu­jahs sing

All around with prais­es ring.

Lo! abun­dant­ly they bloom

Lebanon is hi­ther come

Carmel’s stores the heav’ns dis­pense

Sharon’s fer­tile ex­cel­lence.

See

these bar­ren souls of ours

Bloom

and put forth fruits and flow­ers—

Flowers of Ed­en

fruits of grace

Peace

and joy

and right­eous­ness.

We be­hold (the ab­jects we)

Christ

the in­car­nate De­ity—

Christ

in whom Thy glo­ries shine

Excellence of strength di­vine.

Ye that trem­ble at His frown

He shall lift your hands cast down;

Christ

who all your weak­ness sees

He shall prop your fe­eble knees.

Ye of fear­ful hearts

be strong;

Jesus will not tar­ry long;

Fear not

lest His truth should fail

Jesus is un­chang­ea­ble.

God

your God

shall sure­ly come

Quell your foes

and seal their doom

He shall come and save you too;

We

O Lord

have found Thee true.

Blind we were

but now we see

Deaf—we heark­en now to Thee

Dumb—for Thee our tongues em­ploy

Lame—and

lo! we leap for joy!

Faint we were

and parched with drought

Water at Thy word gushed out;

Streams of grace our thirst re­fresh

Starting from the wil­der­ness.

Still we gasp Thy grace to know

Here for ev­er let it flow

Make the thirs­ty land a pool

Fix the Spir­it in our soul.

Where the an­cient dra­gon lay

Open for Thy­self a way;

There let ho­ly tem­pers rise

All the fruits of para­dise.

Lead us in the way of peace

In the path of right­eous­ness

Never by the sin­ner trod

Till he feels the cleans­ing blood.

There the sim­ple can­not stray;

Babes

though blind

may find their way—

Find

nor ever thence de­part

Safe in low­li­ness of heart.

Far from fear

from dan­ger far

No de­vour­ing beast is there;

There the hum­ble walk se­cure

God hath made their foot­steps sure.

Jesu

migh­ty to re­deem

Let our lot be cast with them:

Far from earth our souls re­move

Ransomed by Thy dy­ing love.

Leave us not be­low to mourn;

Fain we would to Thee re­turn

Crowned with right­eous­ness arise

Far above these ne­ther skies.

Come

and all our sor­rows chase

Wipe the tears from ev­ery face;

Gladness let us now ob­tain

Partners of Thy end­less reign.

Death

the lat­est foe

de­stroy;

Sorrow then shall yield to joy

Gloomy grief shall flee away

Swallowed up end­less day.