Читать книгу Best Loved Hymns and Readings - Martin Manser - Страница 35

John Greenleaf Whittier never intended these verses from the larger poetic work The Brewing of Soma (1872) to be sung as, being a committed Quaker, he did not approve of the use of music in public worship. The son of a farmer, he considered himself a poet rather than a hymn writer but after his words were matched with Sir Hubert Parry’s tune ‘Repton’ from the oratorio Judith (1888) they became a popular choice with congregations of many different kinds. The ‘soma’ referred to in the title of Whittier’s work was an intoxicating drink used by a Hindu sect in India to drive themselves into an ecstatic frenzy far removed from the poet’s ‘still small voice of calm’.

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,

Forgive our foolish ways!

Reclothe us in our rightful mind;

In purer lives Thy service find,

In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard

Beside the Syrian sea

The gracious calling of the Lord,

Let us, like them, without a word,

Rise up and follow Thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee!

O calm of hills above,

Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee

The silence of eternity

Interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all

Our words and works that drown

The tender whisper of Thy call,

As noiseless let Thy blessing fall

As fell Thy manna down.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,

Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress,

And let out ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire

Thy coolness and Thy balm;

Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;

Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,

O still small voice of calm!

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92)