A Lancashire Doxology

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (1826–1887)

“Some cotton has lately been imported into Farringdon, where the mills have been closed for a considerable time. The people, who were previously in the deepest distress, went out to meet the cotton: the women wept over the bales and kissed them, and finally sang the Doxology over them.”—Spectator of May 14, 1863.

“PRAISE God from whom all blessings flow,”

Praise him who sendeth joy and woe.

The Lord who takes, the Lord who gives,

O, praise him, all that dies, and lives.

He opens and he shuts his hand,

But why we cannot understand:

Pours and dries up his mercies’ flood,

And yet is still All-perfect Good.

We fathom not the mighty plan,

The mystery of God and man;

We women, when afflictions come,

We only suffer and are dumb.

And when, the tempest passing by,

He gleams out, sunlike through our sky,

We look up, and through black clouds riven

We recognize the smile of Heaven.

Ours is no wisdom of the wise,

We have no deep philosophies;

Childlike we take both kiss and rod,

For he who loveth knoweth God.

Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD