4739. O Child of God

1. O child of God, wait patiently when dark thy path may be,
And let thy faith lean trustingly on Him who cares for Thee;
And though the clouds hang drearily upon the brow of night,
Yet in the morning joy will come, and fill thy soul with light.

2. O child of God, He loveth thee, and thou art all His own;
With gentle hand He leadeth thee, thou dost not walk alone;
And though thou watchest wearily the long and stormy night,
Yet in the morning joy will come, and fill thy soul with light.

3. O child of God, how peacefully He calms thy fears to rest,
And draws thee upward tenderly, where dwell the pure and blest;
And He who bendeth silently above the gloom of night,
Will take thee home where endless joy shall fill thy soul with light.

Text Information
First Line: O child of God, wait patiently when dark thy path may be
Title: O Child of God
Author: Frances Jane (Fanny) Crosby (1886)
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain
Notes: During the sum­mer of 1886, Fan­ny Cros­by was my guest at North­field [Mass­a­chu­setts]. One day I com­posed this tune and said to her: "Why not write a po­em for this tune to-night?" The spir­it of po­e­try did not seem to be up­on her, and she an­swered: "No, I can­not do it at pre­sent." The fol­low­ing day we went for a drive, and ex­pect­ed her to go with us, but to our as­ton­ish­ment, she asked to be ex­cused, say­ing that she had some­thing she wished to do. Af­ter we had gone, a num­ber of stu­dents came in and had a plea­sant chat with Fan­ny Cros­by, and af­ter they had gone she sat down at the pi­a­no and played my tune over, and the words of the hymn came to her as they now stand. Up­on our re­turn she has­tened to meet us, and re­cited the vers­es to me. Fan­ny Cros­by spent eight sum­mers with us at North­field, and on a re­cent vi­sit here she told me that some of her hap­pi­est days were those at North­field, and, re­fer­ring to this hymn, she said she knew that she had been per­mit­ted to do a lit­tle good there. She al­so told me that she knew that ma­ny a poor soul had been com­fort­ed by this sim­ple hymn. Sankey, pp. 333-4
Tune Information
Name: [O child of God, wait patiently when dark thy path may be]
Composer: Ira David Sankey
Incipit: 55432 15543 26715
Key: F Major
Copyright: Public Domain



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(Cyber Hymnal)
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(Cyber Hymnal)
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(Cyber Hymnal)
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