Lord God, Lord God, while perfect Love
Sits my hearthstone beside,
And Joy and Rapture are my guests,
And I am all untried,
And all my hours are blissful hours—
With me abide!
And Lord, Lord God, if Grief must come,
And friendship break away;
If I must drink Love’s quassia-cup
With trembling lips and gray,
And all my hours are bitter hours—
Be Thou my stay!
Yea, let me keep unto the end
My perfect faith in Thee,
And bow, submissive, when Thou sayest,
“It cannot be!”
Thou, only, knowest all my heart—
Be merciful to me!
“She Prays” printed in The Seattle Times on April 21, 1900, in Higginson’s literary column “Clover Leaves.” Clipping courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham Washington.