“Whom having not seen, ye love."
—1 Peter 1:8.
WHERE, in this waste unlovely world,
May weary hearts, opprest
With thoughts of sorrows yet to come,
In calm assurance rest?—
In him, who, of the Father's love,
The gracious herald came,
Of mercy to a guilty world,
Of blessing through his name.
In him, who, with unsullied feet,
And guileless spirit, trod
The paths of this unquiet earth,
In solitude with God.
In Jesus, who, ascended now,
Looks backward on the past,
Feels for his suff’ring members here,
And loves us to the last.
'Tis only in his changeless love
Our waiting spirits, blest
With the sweet hope of glory, find
Their dwelling-place of rest.
In the same track where he of old
The dreary desert trod,
Led onward by his grace, we learn
The fullness of our God.