Part 20 (1/2)
Rebuilt by His command, Jerusalem shall rise; Her temple on Moriah stand Again, and touch the skies.
Send then thy servants forth, To call the Hebrews home; From east and west, and south and north, Let all the wanderers come.
With Israel's myriads seal'd Let all the nations meet, And show the mystery fulfill'd, The family complete.
Teach me Aaron's thoughtful silence When corrected by the rod; Teach me Eli's acquiescence, Saying, ”Do thy will, my G.o.d;”
Teach me Job's confiding patience, Dreading words from pride that flow, For thou, Lord, alone exaltest, And thou only layest low.
Who cometh from Edom with might, Far brighter than day at its dawn?
He routed and conquered his foes, And trampled the giants alone; His garments were dyed with their blood, His sword and his arrows stood strong, His beauty did fill the whole land, While travelling in greatness along.
He who darts the winged light'ning, Walks upon the foaming wave; Send forth arrows of conviction, Here exert thy power to save; Burst the bars of Satan's prison, s.n.a.t.c.h the firebrand from the flame, Fill the doubting with a.s.surance, Teach the dumb to sing thy name.
The clouds, O Lord, do scatter, Between me and thy face; Reveal to me the glory Of thy redeeming grace; Speak thou in words of mercy, While in distress I call; And let me taste forgiveness, Through Christ, my all-in-all.
THE FARMER'S PRAYER.
BY REV. REES PRICHARD, M.A.
TRANSLATED BY THE REV. WILLIAM EVANS.
[Any collection of Welsh poetry that does not contain a portion of the poems of the ”Good Vicar Prichard of Llandovery” would be incomplete.
This excellent man was born at Llandovery, in Carmarthens.h.i.+re, in the year 1579, and died there in 1644. After a collegiate course in Oxford he was inducted to the Vicarage of his native parish, and received successively afterwards the appointments of Prebendary, and Chancellor of St. David's. He composed a mult.i.tude of religious poems and pious carols, which were universally popular among his contemporaries and had great influence upon the Welsh of after-times. They were collected and published after his death under the t.i.tle of ”Canwyll y Cymry,” or ”The Candle of the Welsh,” of which about twenty editions have appeared. The ”Welshman's Caudle” has for the last two hundred and fifty years found a place beside the Holy Bible in the bookshelf of almost every native of the Princ.i.p.ality, and has been consecrated by the nation. It consists of pious advice and religious exhortation suited to all conditions and circ.u.mstances of life. An English translation of the poems was published by Messrs. Longman & Co., in 1815.]
O Thou! by whom the universe was made, Mankind's support, and never failing aid, Who bid'st the earth her various products bear, Who waterest the soft'ned soil with rain, Who givest vegetation to the grain, Unto a peasant's ardent pray'r give ear!
I now intend, with care, my land to dress, And in its fertile womb to sow my grain; Which, if, O G.o.d! thou deignest not to bless, I never shall receive, or see again.
In vain it is to plant, in vain to sow, In vain to harrow well the levell'd plain, If thou wilt not command the seed to grow, And shed thy blessing on the bury'd grain.
For not a single corn will rush to birth Of all that I've entrusted to the earth, If thou dost not enjoin the blade to spring And the young shoot to full perfection bring.
I therefore beg thy blessing on my lands, O Lord! and on the labour of my hands, That I thereby, may as a Christian, live, And my support, and maintenance receive!
Open the windows of the skies, and pour Thy blessings on them in a genial show'r; My corn with earth's prolific fatness feed, And give increase to all my cover'd seed!
Let not the skies, like bra.s.s in fusion, glow, Nor the earth, with heat, as hard as iron grow, Let not our pastures and our meads of hay, For our supine neglect of Thee, decay!
But give us in good time and measure meet, A temp'rate season, and sufficient heat, Give us the former and the latter rains, Give peace and plenty to the British swains.
The locust and the cankerworm restrain, The dew that blights and tarnishes the grain, The drought, the nipping winds, the lightning's glare, Which to the growing corn pernicious are.