
1 Lord for tomorrow and its needs
I do not pray;
Keep me, my God, from stain of sin
Just for today.
Help me to labor earnestly,
And duly pray;
Let me be kind in word and deed,
Father today.
2 Let me be slow to do my will,
Prompt to obey;
Help me to sacrifice myself,
Father, today.
Let me no wrong or idle word
Unthinking say;
Set Thou a seal up on my lips
Through all today.
3 Let me in season, Lord, be grave,
In season gay;
Let me be faithful to Thy grace,
Father, today.
Lord, for tomorrow and its needs
I do not pray;
Still keep me, guide me, love me, Lord,
Through each today.
Amen.
Source: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal #331
First Line: | Lord, for tomorrow and its needs |
Author: | Sister Mary Xavier (1877) |
Author: | Samuel Wilberforce |
Meter: | 8.4.8.4 D |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Lord! for tomorrow and its needs. [Strength for the Day.] The authoress, who desires to remain anonymous, informs me that this poem was written in 1877, and was first printed in the English Messenger of the Sacred Heart (Jan. 1880, p. 20, and signed "S. M. X."). It has been widely used, but generally altered and abridged. The full and correct form is in her In Hymnis et Canticis. Verses Sacred and Profane, by a Sister of Notre Dame (S. M. X), 1903, p. 28. These Verses were mostly written at Liverpool, for the students of the Liverpool Training College. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)