427. All creation groans and travails

All creation groans and travails;

Thou, O God, shalt hear its groan;

For of man and all creation

Thou alike art Lord alone.

Pity then Thy guiltless creatures,

Who, not less, man's sufferings share:

For our sins it is they perish;

Let them profit by our prayer.

Cast Thine eye of love and mercy

On the misery of the land;

Say to the destroying Angel,

'"Tis enough: stay now thine hand."

In our homesteads, in our valleys,

Through our pasture-lands give peace;

Through the Goshen of Thine Israel

Bid the grievous murrain cease.

But with deeper, tenderer pity,

Call to mind, O Son of God,

Those in Thine own Image fashioned:

Ransomed with Thy precious blood:

Hear and grant the supplications,

Like a cloud of incense, borne

Up toward Thy Seal of Mercy

From Thy people's hearts forlorn:

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For the widow, for the orphan,

For the helpless, hopeless poor:

Helpless, hopeless, if Thou spare not

Of their basket and their store.

So — while these her earnest accents

Day by day Thy Church repeats, —

That our sheep may bring forth thousands

And ten thousands in our streets;

That our oxen, strong to labour,

May not know nor fear decay:

That there be no more complaining,

And the plague have passed away.

And, at last, to all Thy servants,

When earth's troubles shall be o'er,

Threefold Godhead, give a portion

With Thyself for evermore. Amen.

feto fear'*