Hymn - For the Crying of the Needy
I.
For the crying of the needy,
The wasting of the poor
God’s recompense is speedy—
His judgments ever sure;
And his arm is never shorten’d, that it cannot save.
His mercy is unbounded
To them that are distress’d,
By many ills surrounded,
Or by the strong oppress’d;
And he heeds with loving kindness, the heavy-hearted slave.
II.
Then, sable brother, bend thee
Unmurmuring while thou must;
Jehovah shall befriend thee,
And raise thee from the dust;
And he shall spoil the spoiler, and all his glory bow.
Cheer up then, sable brother!
Toil on another day,
Another and another—
It is not far away—
The day of thy redemption, it dawneth even now.
III.
O, never dim its glory
With clouds of carnage dun,
Or lead with weapons gory
Victorious freedom on;
Better to dare the vengeance of man than of the Lord.
Ye triumph when ye suffer,
Meek martyrs of the wrong,
In love that loveth ever,
Omnipotently strong.
Most wronged and most forgiving, how great is your reward.
- Title
- Hymn - For the Crying of the Needy
- First Line
- For the crying of the needy
- Creator
-
George Shepard Burleigh
- Bibliographic Citation
- Bolles, William, Select Hymns, Designed for Social and Private Worship. Including Many Never Before Published. A New Edition Revised and Enlarged. New London: William Bolles, 1842. Hymn # 282, p. 222-223. Held at the Charles E. Shain Library, Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives, Connecticut College, New London.
- Date
- 1842
- Period
- Early
- Subject
- Abolition
- Peace
- Comments
- Under E.D.H. pseudonym
- Separated from the other poems contributed by George S. Burleigh in the collection
- This poem encapsulates a number of problems with pacifism and slavery, and a creeping paternalism towards the enslaved, which frankly mimics the language of enslavers by promising a heavenly reward while the slave is asked to go on laboring. One of the worst poems, thematically, in George S. Burleigh's anti-slavery works.
- Related Resource
- Other poems by George S. Burleigh in the Bolles' Hymn Collection
-
Hymn - Where is the promise that day is advancing
-
Hymn - There is no evil thing
-
Hymn - Look down in mercy from above
-
Hymn - Lord! While We Gather in thy Name
-
Hymn - Ere Yet the Soul of Man
-
Hymn - Eternal Spirit; When We Bow
-
Hymn - STORMS! that Thunder through the Sky
-
Hymn - Hark to the Bitter Wail
-
Hymn - Why o'er the Mighty Waters
-
Hymn - When Israel Left the Spoiler's Hand
- Rating
- ★