Today’s hymn comes from Adelaide Procter (1825-1864). Miss Procter became a contributor to Dickens’ “Household Words.” Her reputation as a poet was secured by the publication of her first volume of “Legends and Lyrics,” in 1858. A second volume was added in 1860. She also published other compositions in poetry and prose¹. I hope your heart can also give thanks to God this Lord’s Day; enjoy!

My God, I thank Thee, who hast made
The earth so bright;
So full of splendor and of joy,
Beauty and light,
So many glorious things are here,
Noble and right. 

I thank Thee, too, that Thou hast made
Joy to abound; 
So many gentle thoughts and deeds
Circling us round;
That in the darkest spot of earth
Some love is found.

I thank Thee, that all our joy
Is touched with pain;
That shadows fall on brightest hours,
That thorns remain;
So that earth’s bliss may be our guide,
And not our chain.

I thank thee, Lord, that thou hast kept
The best in store;
We have enough, yet not too much,
To long for more;
A yearning for a deeper peace
Not known before.

I thank thee, Lord, that here our souls,
Though amply blest,
Can never find, although they seek,
A perfect rest;
Nor ever shall, until they lean
On Jesus’ breast.

AMEN.

¹https://hymnary.org/person/Procter_AA

Katherine Kennicott Davis studied at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, where she was also a teaching assistant in music. From 1921 to 1929 she taught singing and piano in private schools in Concord, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After 1929 she devoted herself largely to music composition. She wrote some eight hundred pieces, most of which were choral (often writing under several pseudonyms). One of her most popular songs is “The Little Drummer Boy,” originally called “Carol of the Drum” (1941)¹. Enjoy reading this one as a poem.

Let all things now living
A song of thanksgiving
To God the creator triumphantly raise.
Who fashioned and made us,
Protected and stayed us,
Who still guides us on to the end of our days.
His banners are o’er us,
His light goes before us,
A pillar of fire shining forth in the night.
Till shadows have vanished
And darkness is banished
As forward we travel from light into light.

His law he enforces,
The stars in their courses
And sun in its orbit obediently shine;
The hills and the mountains,
The rivers and fountains,
The deeps of the ocean proclaim him divine.
We too should be voicing
Our love and rejoicing;
With glad adoration a song let us raise
Till all things now living
Unite in thanksgiving:
“To God in the highest, Hosanna and praise!”
Amen.

¹hymnary.org/text/let_all_things_now_living_a_song_of_than

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