Verse 1
Father, who dost in secret see,
Or’ewhelm’d with anxious care
I cast my anxious care on Thee
In humble, pensive prayer:
The children by thy grace bestow’d
I unto Thee resign;
O may they fear, and serve their God,
And live for ever thine!

Verse 2
Thy servants in their youthful days,
Thy fear they surely show,
But still they do not taste thy grace
Or their Redeemer know;
The Man who suffer’d for their sake
Their sufferings to remove,
They never long’d to pay him back
His dear, redeeming love.

Verse 3
Surrounded with a world of ill
No ill alas, they fear,
No dread, or apprehension feel
Of vice, or error near:
By Satan, and his host beset
Expos’d on every side,
How can they ’scape the fowler’s net
Or in thy fear abide?

Verse 4
Almighty God, be Thou their Shield,
Increase their sacred awe,
And shut them up from sin conceal’d
The prisoners of the law:
Keep, till Thou manifest the grace
Which sure salvation brings,
And hide them from all evil ways
Beneath thy mercy’s wings.

Verse 5
Victorious o’re the world and hell
The faith divine impart,
Which doth thy dying Son reveal,
And purifies the heart;
Thy Son set forth as crucified —
And then The grace they prove,
And then they feel the blood applied
Which turns their fear to love.