Friday, May 12, 2023

Why is my heart with grief oppress’d?

772 L. M.
The Lord is my refuge.

WHY is my heart with grief oppress’d
   Can all the pains I feel or fear,
   Make thee, my soul, forget thy rest—
   Forget that God, thy God, is near?
  

2 Hast thou not often call’d the Lord
   Thy refuge, thy almighty friend?
   And canst thou fear to trust that word
   On which thy hopes of heaven depend?

3 Lord, form my temper to thy will;
   If thou my faith and patience prove,
   May every painful stroke fulfil
   Thy purposes of faithful love.

4 O may this weak, this fainting mind,
   A Father’s hand, adoring, see;
   Confess thee just, and wise, and kind,
   And trust thy word, and cleave to thee.
                        Wilson’s Collection
                        Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

<idle musing>
I haven't a clue what the Wilson's Collection is and Google is no help. It pulls up this hymnal, and a piano tune book from 1860 with about one thousand hymns. Not terribly helpful. Hymnary.org is no help at all.

Oh, I just found this at the Internet Archive. Apparently it's a compilation of hymns put together by a Rev. William Cams Wilson in 1838. Unfortunately, that's comes up blank on WorldCat, so I'm no closer than I was.
</idle musing>

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