For the Beauty of the Earth

When I was a teenager, it dawned on me that hymns could be not only sung but also spoken. So I began to employ the poetry of Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, Fanny Crosby, and others as a sort of private diary of prayer. My well-worn hymnal has since bracketed and buttressed my prayers like no other book except the Bible (oddly, it was years later that I began praying the Bible in much the same way I had been using the hymnal). This hymn by Folliot S. Pierpoint is one I use frequently to express my praise and thanks to God:

For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies,
Father, unto Thee I raise,
This my hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour,
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon, and stars of light,
Father, unto Thee I raise,
This my hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind’s delight,
For the mystic harmony
Linking sense to sound and sight,
Father, unto Thee I raise,
This my hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild,
Father, unto Thee I raise,
This my hymn of grateful praise.

For Thy Church, that evermore
Lifteth holy hands above,
Offering up on every shore
Her pure sacrifice of love,
Father, unto Thee I raise,
This my hymn of grateful praise.

For the martyrs’ crown of light,
For Thy prophets’ eagle eye,
For Thy bold confessors’ might,
For the lips of infancy,
Father, unto Thee I raise,
This my hymn of grateful praise.

For each perfect gift of Thine,
To the human race so freely given,
Graces human and divine,
Flowers of earth and buds of Heaven,
Father, unto Thee I raise,
This my hymn of grateful praise.