Praise to GOD, immortal praise, For the love that crowns our days! Bounteous source of every joy, Let Thy praise our tongues employ. | For the blessings of the field, For the stores the gardens yield; For the vine's exalted juice, For the generous olive's use: | Flocks that whiten all the plain; Yellow sheaves of ripen'd grain; Clouds that drop their fattening dews, Suns that temperate warmth diffuse: | All that Spring with bounteous hand Scatters o'er the smiling land; All that liberal Autumn pours From her rich o'erflowing stores: | These to Thee, my GOD, we owe,-- Source whence all our blessings flow; And for these my soul shall raise Grateful vows and solemn praise. | Yet, should rising whirlwinds tear From its stem the ripening ear; Should the fig-tree's blasted shoot Drop her green untimely fruit; 193 | Should the vine put forth no more, Nor the olive yield her store; Though the sickening flocks should fall, And the herds desert the stall; | Should Thine alter'd hand restrain The early and the latter rain; Blast each opening bud of joy, And the rising year destroy; | Yet to Thee my soul should raise Grateful vows and solemn praise; And, when every blessing's flown, Love Thee for Thyself alone! | |