By earth hemmed in, by earth oppressed

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By earth hemmed in, by earth oppressed

Author: J. H. Perkins
Published in 2 hymnals

Representative Text

By earth hemmed in, by earth oppressed,
’Tis hard to labor,—hard to pray;
And of the week, for prayer and rest,
We’ve but one Sabbath day.

But purer spirits walk above,
Who worship alway; who are blest
With an upspringing might of love
That makes all labor, rest.

Father, while here, we would arise
In spirit to that realm; and there
Be every act a sacrifice,
And every thought a prayer!

Source: A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (15th ed.) #455

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Author: J. H. Perkins

Perkins, Rev. James Handasyd. (Boston, Massachusetts, July 31, 1810--December 14, 1849, near Cincinnati, Ohio). He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and at Round Hill School. Northampton, Mass. After a brief business experience in Boston he moved to Cincinnati, where he was admitted to the bar in 1837, but two years later he took up the Ministry-at-Large organized by the First Congregational Society (Unitarian) of Cincinnati, and later became pastor of the church. He was active in social reforms and as a lecturer, and was author of a number of essays descriptive of life in what was then the far west. The hymn in 3 stanzas, C.M., beginning "It is a faith sublime and sure" attributed to "J.H. Perkins" in Longfellow and Johnson's Book… Go to person page >

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