That Blessed Hope

(Frances Ellen Watkins Harper - found here)

Oh touch it not that hope so blest
       Which cheers the fainting heart,
       And points it to the coming rest
       Where sorrow has no part.

Tear from heart each worldly prop,
       Unbind each earthly string;
       But to this blest and glorious hope,
       Oh let my spirit cling.

It cheer’d amid the days of old
       Each holy patriarch’s breast,
       It was an anchor to their souls,
       Upon it let me rest.

When wand’ring in the dens and caves,
       In goat and sheep skins drest,
       Apeel’d and scatter’d people learn’d
       To know this hope was blest.

Help me to love this blessed hope;
       My heart’s a fragile thing;
       Will you not nerve and bear it up
       Around this hope to cling.

Help amid this world of strife
       To long for Christ to reign,
       That when he brings the crown of life
       I may that crown obtain.

~Frances Ellen Watkins Harper