Sunday after Christmas Day

Last Sunday of the work-day year,
How sweetly falls on heart and ear
That blessed Name, by which we know
That ' God,' thro' all our weal and woe,
Is 'with us,' and will ever make
Our cause His own, for Jesus' sake.

When toiling thro' this world of care,
Depressed in faith, and faint in prayer,
Distracted by life's sinful ways,
With baffled hopes, and cloudy days,
What pledge in that one word is given
To weary earth of watchful Heaven!

When on the losses, which have cast
Their shadow o'er the year that's past,
Or on the cares, whose trembling gloom
Is hanging o'er the year to come,
The troubled heart despondent dwells,
How ' God with us ' all gloom dispels!

If God be with us, — who hath power
To harm us in the weakest hour?
If God be with us, loss and pain
Touched by His Presence turn to gain!
All clouds and darkness then will take
The hues of heaven for Jesus' sake!

Alas! that we should ever prove
Unthankful for such tender love;
Alas! that we, when God would thus
For ever be a c God with us/
Should force Him from the gentle path,
To be ‘against us' in His wrath.