Lift up thine eyes, afflicted soul!
From earth uplift thine eyes,
Though dark the shades of evening roll,
And daylight beauty dies;
One sun is set,--a thousand more
Their rounds of glory run,
Where science leads thee to explore
In every star a sun.
Thus, when some long-loved comfort ends,
And frailty would despair,
Faith to the heaven of heavens ascends,
And meets ten thousand there.
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First faint and small, then clear and bright,
They gladden all the gloom,
As stars, that seem but points of light,
The rank of suns assume.
James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >
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