While na­ture yield­ing to des­pair
Her blast­ed ex­pect­ation mourns,
After a length of years the pray­er
In the most help­less case re­turns,
The peace­ful word at last comes down,
And lo, the bar­ren bears a son!

Then let us pa­tient­ly at­tend,
To Him the time and man­ner leave,
Till God the long sought bless­ing send,
Till Christ His gra­cious full­ness give,
And faith’s ma­tur­est fruit we prove
In fin­ished ho­li­ness and love.