Song Book Sunday - Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

Heather Allington

Heather writes for Sunday Song Book on behalf of the The Salvation Army Oshawa. As a lifelong member of the Army, she has loved these familiar - and some less familiar - songs for many years, and enjoys researching and writing about their origins. She is a wife, mother, grandmother and retired elementary school teacher who likes trying her hand at watercolour painting and poetry writing.

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways.
Reclothe us in our rightful mind;
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness
Till all our strivings cease.
Take from our souls the strain and stress
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.

John Greenleaf Whittier was an American Quaker whose life expressed the steadfast rest in God’s love described here in two verses of this five-verse hymn. He was a good example of quiet, godly life in his speech, dress and writings. It has been said that “he left upon our literature the stamp of genius, and upon our religion the touch of sanity.” He himself thought that a poem was best used if turned into a hymn, but did not think he could claim to have written such a one! However, hymnal editors have collected and edited enough of his poems to make seventy-five hymns! This one was voted the international favourite of 1995!