With silence only as their benediction

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With silence only as their benediction

Author: John Greenleaf Whittier
Published in 34 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, Noteworthy Composer
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

With silence only as their benediction,
God’s angels come
Where, in the shadow of a great affliction,
The soul sits dumb.

Yet would we say, what every heart approveth,—
Our Father’s will,
Calling to Him the dear ones whom he loveth,
Is mercy still.

Not upon us or ours the solemn angel
Hath evil wrought;
The funeral anthem is a glad evangel;
The good die not!

God calls our loved ones, but we lose not wholly
What He has given;
They live on earth in thought and deed, as truly
As in His heaven.

Source: A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion (15th ed.) #342

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Author: John Greenleaf Whittier

Whittier, John Greenleaf, the American Quaker poet, was born at Haverhill, Massachusetts, Dec. 17, 1807. He began life as a farm-boy and shoemaker, and subsequently became a successful journalist, editor and poet. In 1828 he became editor of the American Manufacturer (Boston), in 1830 of the New England Review, and an 1836 (on becoming Secretary to the American Anti-Slavery Society) of the Pennsylvania Freeman. He was also for some time, beginning with 1847, the corresponding editor of the National Era. In 1840 he removed to Amesbury, Massachusetts, where most of his later works have been written. At the present time [1890] he lives alternately at Amesbury and Boston. His first poetical piece was printed in the Newburyport Free Press in 182… Go to person page >

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