What Thanks and Praise to Thee We Owe

What thanks and praise to Thee we owe

O priest and sac­ri­fice di­vine

For Thy dear saint through whom we know

So many a gra­cious word of Thine;

Whom Thou didst choose to tell the tale

Of all Thy man­hood’s toils and tears

And for a mo­ment lift the veil

That hides Thy boy­hood’s spot­less years.

How ma­ny a soul with guilt op­pressed

Has learned to hear the joy­ful sound

In that sweet tale of sin con­fessed

The Fa­ther’s love

the lost and found?

How ma­ny a child of sin and shame

Has re­fuge found from guil­ty fears

Through her

who to the Sav­ior came

With cost­ly oint­ments and with tears!

What count­less wor­ship­ers have sung

In low­ly fane or lof­ty choir

The song that loosed the si­lent tongue

Of him who was the Bap­tist’s sire!

And still the Church through all her days

Uplifts the strains that nev­er cease

The bless­èd vir­gin’s hymn of praise

The ag­èd Si­me­on’s words of peace.

O hap­py saint! whose sac­red page

So rich in words of truth and love

Pours on the Church from age to age

This heal­ing unc­tion from ab­ove;

The wit­ness of the Sav­ior’s life

The great apos­tle’s chos­en friend

Through wea­ry years of toil and strife

And still found faith­ful to the end.

So grant us

Lord

like him to live

Beloved by man

ap­proved by Thee

Till Thou at last the sum­mons give

And we

with him

Thy face shall see.