Mary Lundie Duncan

2 All this day Thy hand has led me, And I thank Thee for Thy care; Thou hast warmed me, clothed and fed me; Listen to my evening prayer!

3 Let my sins be all forgiven; Bless the friends I love so well: Take us all at last to heaven, Happy there with Thee to dwell.

Hymnal: according to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, 1871

This beautiful little hymn was composed for her children in 1839, and first published in 3 stanzas of 4 lines in herMemoir, 1841 (edition 1843, p. 311). It is No. 3 in her Rhymes for my Children, 1842, entitled “An Evening Prayer.” It has been included in England in the BaptistPsalms & Hymns, 1858, the Hymnal Companion, 1876, and others; in America, in the Episcopal Hymn Book, 1871, the Evangelical Hymnal, N. Y., 1880, theSongs of Christian Praise, N. Y., 1881, and in other collections. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

–John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Through tribulation great they came; They bore the cross, despised the shame; But now from all their labors rest, In God’s eternal glory blest, In God’s eternal glory blest.

They see the Savior face to face; They sing the triumph of His grace; And day and night, with ceaseless praise, To Him their loud hosannas raise, To Him their loud hosannas raise.

Worthy the Lamb, for sinners slain, Through endless years to live and reign; Thou hast redeemed us by Thy blood, And made us kings and priests to God.

O may we tread the sacred road That holy saints and martyrs trod; Wage to the end the glorious strife, And win, like them, a crown of life, And win, like them, a crown of life!

Where is the beauty of that ancient land, 
Where patriarchs fed their flocks by hving streams
Still tower to heaven its mountain summits grand,
Still o’er them flings the sun his glorious beams.
But bowed on Lebanon the cedar’s pride,
Nor vine nor olive waves on Carmel’s rugged side.
Where is the melody of sacred song,
That floated tuneful down the vales of yore,
Where David led triumphant choirs along,
Or Miriam’s timbrel swelled on Elim’s shore 1
Faint are the quivering notes, and sad, and low,
That now, in doubt and gloom, from Judah’s children flow.
The cultured plains, once rich with milk and wine,
Are turned to deserts, ’neath a stranger’s tread j
The land, in ashes, mourns her banished line.
Nor yields her fruits, a tyrant’s board to spread ;
While, through remotest climes, her thousands sigh
To reach their lovely home, and bless it ere they die.
For, be their dwellings in earth’s fairest plains,
They still an exile’s pensive spirit bear ;
To them, nor hope, nor joy, nor wish remains,
But, turned to Zion, fondly centres there ;
They mourn it now, as on the willowy shore,
Where far Euphrates rolls, of old they wept it sore.
A time draws nigh to bid your sorrows cease.
Seed of the Highest ! Yet a little while.
And all your wanderings shall close in peace : —
Again for you shall Canaan’s beauty smile :
And where the cloud of heaven’s dire vengeance lower’d.
O’er the rejoicing land Heaven’s sunshine* shall be poured.

Cant. iv. and vii.

Then shall the gathering tribes, from Sinai’s height
And dewy Hermon, strain their eager gaze,
To view, through distance blue, or vista bright.
Each vale, each sacred stream of formerliays ;
While from Amana’s top shall burst the voice
Of loudest praise, and bid the listening earth rejoice.
No more shall dark Moriah’s brow be crowned
With idol forms, that shame the blushing day.
Her King again shall bless the hallowed ground,
The hills of myrrh* ezultant own his sway :
His temple rising, evermore shall stand,
The glory of all earth, the joy of every land.
With trembling awe shall Judah’s children throng
To tread the sides of blood-stained Calvary,
And bless the Man of Woes, — rejected long,
For love that lived through all his agony,°
And watched, through ages, their ungrateful race.
That hatred gave for love, and scorn for pardoning grace*.
His pitying look shall melt their contrite souls,
His smile celestial comfort shall infuse :
As on to endless day time’s chariot rolls,
From pole to pole shall spread the joyful news ;
Till earth, with rays of Salem’s glory bright.
To darkness bids farewell, and springs to life and light.
M. L. D.