4. For means it fails Thee never, Thou always find’st a way, Thy deeds are blessing ever, Thy path like brightest day. Thy work no one can hinder, Thy labor cannot rest, If Thou design’st Thy tender Children should all be blessed. 5. Though all the power of evil Should rise up to resist, Without a doubt or cavil God never will desist; His undertakings ever At length He carries through; What He designs He never Can fail at all to do. 6. Hope on, thou heart, grief-riven, In hope courageous be; Where anguish thee had driven Thou shalt deliverance see. God from thy pit of sadness Shall raise thee graciously; Wait, and the sun of gladness Thine eyes shall early see. 7. Arise, to pain and anguish A long good night now say; Drive all that makes thee languish In grief and woe away. Not thine ’tis to endeavor The ruler’s part to play; God sits as Ruler ever, Guides all things well each day. 8. Let Him alone and tarry, He is a Prince all-wise, He shall Himself so carry ’Twill strange seem in thine eyes, When He, as Him beseemeth, In wonderful decree, Shall as Himself good deemeth, O’errule what grieveth thee. 9. He may, a while still staying, His comforts keep from thee And, on His part delaying, Seem to have utterly Forgotten and forsaken And put thee out of mind, Though grief hath thee o’ertaken, No time for thee to find. 10. But if thou never shrinkest And true dost still remain, He’ll come when least thou thinkest And set thee free again, Thee from the load deliver, That burdeneth thy heart, That thou hast carried never For any evil part. 11. Hail! child of faith, who gainest The victory alway, Who honor’s crown obtainest, That never fades away. God in thy hand will give thee One day the glorious palm; Who ne’er in grief did leave thee, To Him thou’lt sing thy psalm. 12. O Lord, no longer lengthen Our time of misery; Our hands and feet do strengthen; And until death may we By Thee be watched and cared for, In faithfulness and love. So come we where prepared for Us is our blessed abode. Paul Gerhardt, 1656; J. Kelly, tr., a. 526 7, 6, 8 l If God Himself be for me, I may a host defy, For when I pray, before me My foes confounded fly. If Christ, my Head and Master, Befriend me from above, What foe or what disaster Can drive me from His love?