Words: , Sci­pio’s Gar­den and Other Po­ems, 1901. In The Pil­grim Hymn­al, 1904, it is dat­ed to 1887.

Music: Deventer, , 1872.


O Thou Who sealest up the past,
The days slip from us, and the years
Grow silent with their hopes and fears;
’Tis Thine to keep all things at last.

We have not done the things we would,
A blotted page we render back;
And yet, whate’er our work may lack,
Thy work goes on, and Thou art good.

Thou movest in the moving years;
Wherever man is, there Thou art
To overrule his feebler part,
And bring a blessing out of tears.

Thou opener of the years to be,
Let me not lose, in woe or weal,
The touch of Thy strong hand I feel
Upholding and directing me.