Hymns and Odes for Charity Occasions II

Mighty One, whose name is holy,
Thou wilt save thy work alive;
And the spirit of the lowly
Thou wilt visit and revive.
What thy prophets thus have spoken,
Ages witness as they roll;
Bleeding hearts and spirits broken,
Touched by thee, O God, are whole.


By thy pitying spirit guided,
Jesus sought the sufferer's door,
Comforts for the poor provided,
And the mourner's sorrows bore.
So, it was thy spirit, beaming
In his face whose name we bear,
That sustained him while redeeming
Power's pale victims from despair.


To the prisoner, wan and wasting
In the voiceless dungeon's night,
He, thine own apostle, hasting,
Led him forth, unbound, to light.
So thy mercy's angel, bending,
Heard a friendless prisoner call,
And, through night's cold vault descending,
Loosed from chains thy servant Paul.


Father, as thy love is endless,
Working by thy servants thus,
The forsaken and the friendless
Deign to visit, even by us.
So shall each, with spirit fervent,
Laboring with thee here below,
Be declared thy faithful servant,
Where there 's neither want nor woe.