GRATITUDE TO GOD

 

          GRATITUDE TO GOD

          Given below is a full poem titled A. Hymn by Joseph Addison (1672-1719). He was a distinguished poet, essayist, dramatist and politician.  He was also a journalist who co-founded the magazine “The Spectator” with his close friend Richard Steele (1672-1729).

          Addison wrote several hymns two of which The Spacious Firmanent on High and When All Thy Mercies , O My God  are very famous. In the first hymn ,the first line begins as“The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands” and in the second hymn , in the fourth stanza the poet says:  :

          To all my weak complaints and cries

           Thy mercy lent an ear,

             Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learnt

             To form themselves in prayer.

Written in a very simple language, A. Hymn expresses the poet’s gratitude to God for His manifold comforts to his soul when it is in “sins and sorrows sunk.”

               The hymn ends with the assurance:

          Through all eternity to Thee

          A  joyful song I’ll raise ;

          For oh ! eternity’s too short

          To utter all Thy praise.

                     -------

          THE COMPLETE HYMN                                 

 

1.    When all Thy mercies, O my God,

My rising soul surveys,

Transported with the view, I’m lost,

In wonder, love and praise.

Thy providence my life sustained,

And all my wants redressed,

While in the silent womb I lay,

And hung upon the breast.

          2. To all my weak complaints and cries,

Thy mercy lent an ear,

Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learned,

To form themselves in prayer.

Unnumbered comforts to my soul,

Thy tender care bestowed,

Before my infant heart conceived,

From Whom those comforts flowed.

3. When in the slippery paths of youth,

With heedless steps I ran,

Thine arm unseen conveyed me safe,

And reared me up to man.

Through hidden dangers, toils, and deaths,

It gently cleared my way;

And through the pleasing snares of vice,

More to be feared than they.

4. Thy bounteous hand with worldly bliss,

Hath made my cup run o’er;

And, in a kind and faithful Friend,

Hath doubled all my store.

Ten thousand thousand precious gifts,

My daily thanks employ;

Nor is the last a cheerful heart,

That tastes those gifts with joy.

5 When worn with sickness, oft hast Thou,

With health renewed my face;

And, when in sins and sorrows sunk,

Revived my soul with grace.

Through every period of my life,

Thy goodness I’ll pursue;

And after death, in distant worlds,

The glorious theme renew.

6 O how shall words with equal warmth,

The gratitude declare,

That glows within my ravished heart?

But thou canst read it there.

Through all eternity to Thee,

A joyful song I’ll raise;

For, oh, eternity’s too short,

To utter all Thy praise!

                                                                        *******

G.R.Kanwal

9^th January 2026