My God and Father! While I Stray

My God and Fa­ther! while I stray

Far from my home in life’s rough way

Oh! teach me from my heart to say

Thy will be done!

Though dark my path

and sad my lot

Let me be still

and mur­mur not

Or breathe the pray­er di­vine­ly taught

Thy will be done!

What though in lone­ly grief I sigh

For friends be­loved

no long­er nigh

Submissive still would I re­ply

Thy will be done!

If Thou shouldst call me to re­sign

What most I prize

it ne’er was mine;

I on­ly yield Thee what was Thine;

Thy will be done!

Should pin­ing sick­ness waste away

My life in pre­ma­ture de­cay

My Fa­ther! still I strive to say

Thy will be done!

Let but my faint­ing heart be blest

With Thy sweet Spir­it for its guest

My God! to Thee I leave the rest—

Thy will be done!

Renew my will from day to day

Blend it with Thine

and take away

All now that makes it hard to say

Thy will be done!

Then when on earth I breathe no more

The prayer oft mixed with tears be­fore

I’ll sing up­on a hap­pi­er shore

Thy will be done!