Prayer

if, when I kneel to pray, With eager lips I say: “Lord, give me all the things that I desire,— Health, wealth, fame, friends, brave heart, religious fire, The power to sway my fellow-men at will, And strength for mighty works to banish ill,”— In such a prayer as this The blessing I must miss. Or if I only dare To raise this fainting prayer: “Thou seest, Lord, that I am poor and weak, And cannot tell what things I ought to seek; I therefore do not ask at all, but still I trust thy bounty all my wants to fill,”— My lips shall thus grow dumb, The blessing shall not come. But if I lowly fall, And thus in faith I call: “Through Christ, O Lord, I pray thee give to me Not what I would, but what seems best to thee Of life, of health, of service, and of strength, Until to thy full joy I come at length,”— My prayer shall then avail, The blessing shall not fail.

Collection: 
English
Charles Francis Richardson

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