O Lord, who in Thy love di­vine
Didst leave in Heav’n the nine­ty-nine,
With pi­ty for a world un­done,
And gav’st Thy life to save the one,
And didst it on Thy shoul­ders bear
In joy to Heav’n; O hear our pray­er.

Thou who the night in pray­er didst spend
And then didst Thine apos­tles send
And bidd’st us pray the har­vest’s Lord
To send forth sow­ers of Thy Word,
Hear and Thy chos­en ser­vants bless
With sev’n­fold gifts of ho­li­ness.

Look down, with gra­cious eye behold,
With watch­ful care pro­tect Thy fold;
Secure from hire­ling shep­herds keep,
Which feed them­selves, and not the sheep,
And when the prowl­ing wolf is nigh,
Forsake the flock in fear and fly.

O Thou, who didst at Pen­te­cost
Send down from Heav’n the Ho­ly Ghost
That He might with Thy Church abide
For ever, to de­fend and guide;
Illuminate Thy ser­vants, Lord,
The preach­ers of Thy ho­ly Word.

Oh, may Thy pas­tors faith­ful be,
Not la­bor­ing for them­selves, but Thee;
Give grace to feed with whole­some food
Whom Thou hast pur­chased by Thy blood,
The sheep and lambs; and thus to prove
How dear­ly they the Shepherd love.

That which the holy Scrip­tures teach,
That, and that on­ly, may they preach;
May they the true foun­da­tion lay,
Build gold there­on, not wood or hay;
And meek­ly preach, in days of strife,
The ser­mon of a ho­ly life.

As ev­er in Thy ho­ly eyes,
And stew­ards of Thy mys­ter­ies,
May they the peo­ple teach to see
Not, Lord, Thy min­is­ters, but Thee;
To see a lov­ing Sav­ior’s face
Revealed in all Thy means of grace.

May they Thy Word with bold­ness speak,
And bear with ten­der­ness the weak;
Not seek­ing their own things as best,
But what may ed­ify the rest;
With wis­dom and sim­pli­ci­ty
And, most of all, with cla­ri­ty.

Oh, may Thy peo­ple lov­ing be,
And in Thy pas­tors hon­or Thee,
And with them work, and for them pray,
And glad­ly Thee in them ob­ey,
Receive the pro­phet of the Lord,
And gain the pro­phet’s own re­ward.

So may we, when our work is done,
Together stand be­fore Thy throne;
And joy­ful hearts and voic­es raise
In one unit­ed song of praise,
With all the bright ce­les­ti­al host,
To Fa­ther, Son, and Ho­ly Ghost.