Religion

Desiring a Firmer Affiance in God under Afflictions

by Anne Steele 1717–1778

From Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional (1780)

Religion

Why is my heart with grief opprest?
Can all the pains I feel or fear,
Make thee, my soul, forget thy rest,
Forget that God, thy God is near?

Hast thou not often call'd the Lord
T.hy refuge, thy almighty friend?
And canst thou fear to trust that word
On which thy hopes of heaven depend?

Mortality's unnumber'd ills
Are all beneath his sovereign hand;
Each pain which this frail body feels
Attends, obedient, his command.

Lord, form my temper to thy will!
If thou my faith and patience prove,
May every painful stroke fulfill
Thy purposes of faithful love.

O may this weak, this fainting mind,
A father's hand adoring see;
Confess thee just, and wise, and kind,
And trust thy word and cleave to thee.

MLA

Steele, Anne. “Desiring a Firmer Affiance in God under Afflictions.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/steele_anne/252/.

Chicago

Steele, Anne. “Desiring a Firmer Affiance in God under Afflictions.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/steele_anne/252/.

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