Lighten the Darkness

Lighten the dark­ness of our life’s long night

Through which we blind­ly stum­ble to the day

Shadows mis­lead us; Fa­ther

send Thy light

To set our foot­steps in the home­ward way.

Lighten the dark­ness of our self con­ceit

The sub­tle dark­ness that we love so well

Which shrouds the path of wis­dom from our feet

And lulls our spir­its with its bane­ful spell.

Lighten our dark­ness when we bow the knee

To all the gods we ig­no­rant­ly make

And wor­ship

dream­ing that we wor­ship Thee

Till clear­er light our slum­ber­ing souls awake.

Lighten our dark­ness when we fail at last

And in the mid­night lay us down to die;

We trust to find Thee when the night is past

And day­light breaks across the morn­ing sky.