Songs 59

¹Behold what witnesses unseen

encompass us around;

Men, once like us, with suff’ring try’d,

but now with glory crown’d.

²Let us, with zeal like theirs inspir’d,

begin the Christian race,

And, freed from each encumb’ring weight,

their holy footsteps trace.

³Behold a witness nobler still,

who trod affliction’s path,

Jesus, at once the finisher

and author of our faith.

⁴He for the joy before him set,

so gen’rous was his love,

Endur’d the cross, despis’d the shame,

and now he reigns above.

⁵If he the scorn of wicked men

with patience did sustain,

Becomes it those for whom he dy’d

to murmur or complain?

⁶Have ye like him to blood, to death,

the cause of truth maintain’d?

And is your heav’nly Father’s voice

forgotten or disdain’d?

⁷My son, saith he, with patient mind

endure the chast’ning rod;

Believe, when by afflictions try’d,

that thou art lov’d by God.

⁸His children thus most dear to him,

their heav’nly Father trains,

Through all the hard experience led

of sorrows and of pains.

⁹We know he owns us for his sons,

when we correction share;

Nor wander as a bastard race,

without our Father’s care.

¹⁰A father’s voice with rev’rence we

on earth have often heard;

The Father of our spirits now

demands the same regard.

¹¹Parents may err; but he is wise,

nor lifts the rod in vain;

His chast’nings serve to cure the soul

by salutary pain.

¹²Affliction, when it spreads around,

may seem a field of woe;

Yet there, at last, the happy fruits

of righteousness shall grow.

¹³Then let our hearts no more despond,

our hands be weak no more;

Still let us trust our Father’s love,

his wisdom still adore.