Thanksgiving for the Declaration of Peace

Praise God! for forth hath sounded
The noble word of joy and peace,
There’s rest where strife abounded,
The sword and spear their murders cease.
Up! up! again, and bring ye
Now forth the sounding lyre,
O Germany! and sing ye
In full and noble choir,
Your hearts and minds now raise ye
And thank the Lord, and say,
“Thy grace and goodness praise we
For they endure for aye!”

’Twere just if God were driving
Us in dire wrath from ’fore His face,
For with us still are thriving
The thorns of sin that grow apace.
In deed and truth we feel it—
His rod of chastisement!
But say whoe’er can tell it—
Who are they who repent?
We’re only evil ever,
God’s true continually,
He helpeth to deliver
From war and misery.

With grateful hearts o’erflowing
We greet thee, noble gift of peace!
Where’er thou dwell’st, now knowing
How richly thou dost ever bless.
God to thy keeping giveth
Our good and happiness,
Who woundeth thee and grieveth,
In his own heart doth press
Grief’s arrow, and in madness
He quencheth in the land
The golden light of gladness
With suicidal hand.

What could this lesson ever
Grave on our hearts so solemnly,
As forts laid low for ever,
And towns that now in ruins lie:
As fair and fertile meadows
That wav’d with golden grain,
Now wrapt in forest shadows
And run to waste again.
As graves full of the buried,
Who fell in the dread hour
Of battle in ranks serried,
Whose like we’ll see no more.

O man! be now afflicted,
And let thy tears in torrents flow,
With countenance dejected
To ponder to thy closet go;
What heretofore hath given
Thy God, didst thou deride,
Thy Father who’s in Heaven
Now turn’d hath to thy side.
From fury and from pressing
He turneth for thy good,
As if by love and blessing
Constrain thy heart He would.

Awake thee! now awake thee!
Thou hard, cold world awaken’d be;
Ere doom’s dread hour o’ertake thee,
By thee unlook’d for, suddenly.
Ye for the Saviour living!
Unshaken be your mood,
The peace He now is giving
Can only bring us good.
This lesson He is giving,
The end of all is nigh,
Thou shalt with Him be living
In peace eternally.

Paul Gerhardt’s Spiritual Songs, 1867