In vain my roving thoughts would find

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In vain my roving thoughts would find

Author: Anne Steele
Published in 26 hymnals

Piano/Organ
	Ten Chorale Improvisations, Set 2

Representative Text

1 In vain my roving thoughts would find
A portion worthy of the mind:
On earth my soul can never rest,
For earth can never make me blest.

2 Can lasting happiness be found,
Where seasons roll their hasty round,
And days and hours with rapid flight
Sweep cares and pleasures out of sight?

3 Arise, my thoughts! my heart arise!
Leave this vain world, and seek the skies:
There joys for everyone shall last,
When seasons, days, and hours are past.

4 Thy mercy, Lord, to me impart:
O raise my thoughtless, wand'ring, heart
To pleasures perfect and sublime,
Unmeasur'd by the wings of time.

5 Let those bright worlds of endless joy
My thoughts, my hopes, my cares employ.
No more, ye restless passions, roam:
God is my bliss, and heav'n my home.

Source: A Collection of Hymns and A Liturgy: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran Churches; to which are added prayers for families and individuals #224

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Author: Anne Steele

Anne Steele was the daughter of Particular Baptist preacher and timber merchant William Steele. She spent her entire life in Broughton, Hampshire, near the southern coast of England, and devoted much of her time to writing. Some accounts of her life portray her as a lonely, melancholy invalid, but a revival of research in the last decade indicates that she had been more active and social than what was previously thought. She was theologically conversant with Dissenting ministers and "found herself at the centre of a literary circle that included family members from various generations, as well as local literati." She chose a life of singleness to focus on her craft. Before Christmas in 1742, she declined a marriage proposal from contemporar… Go to person page >

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