The children's angels always view
Their Heavenly Father's face;
His joyful messengers and true,
In Providence and Grace:--
To guard our feeble steps; to keep
From harm our living breath,
Watch o'er our senses while we sleep,
And waft us home in death.
But not to angels' care alone
Poor children are consign'd;
To God Himself our wants are known,
The Lord to us is kind.
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Yes;--every comfort here below,
And every hope above;
All that we have and are, we owe
To His unfailing love.
Then let us act as in His sight,
And on our humble way
Walk in the liberty of light,
As children of the day.
Young though we be and in the prime
Of life's unfolding powers,
Of all the moments of our time,
This, only this is ours.
We seize it, Lord, before 'tis past;
We yield ourselves to Thee;
Thine be our earliest years, our last,
And our eternity.
Source: Sacred Poems and Hymns #327
James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >
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