What thanks and praise to Thee we
owe,
O Priest and Sacrifice divine,
For Thy dear saint through whom we
know
So many a gracious word of Thine;
Whom Thou didst choose to tell the
tale
Of all Thy manhood’s toils and
tears,
And for a moment lift the veil
That hides Thy boyhood’s spotless
years.
How many a soul with guilt
oppressed
Has learned to hear the joyful
sound
In that sweet tale of sin
confessed
The Father’s love, the lost and
found?
How many a child of sin and
shame
Has refuge found from guilty fears
Through her, who to the Savior
came
With costly ointments and with
tears!
What countless worshippers have
sung,
In lowly fane or lofty choir,
The song that loosed the silent
tongue
Of him who was the Baptist’s sire!
And still the Church through
all her days
Uplifts the strains that never
cease,
The blessèd virgin’s hymn of
praise,
The agèd Simeon’s words of peace.
O happy saint! whose sacred
page,
So rich in words of truth and
love,
Pours on the Church from age to
age
This healing unction from above;
The witness of the Savior’s
life,
The great Apostle’s chosen friend
Through weary years of toil and
strife
And still found faithful to the
end.
So grant us, Lord, like him to
live,
Beloved by man, approved by Thee,
Till Thou at last the summons
give,
And we, with him, Thy face shall
see.
