In ancient days men fear’d the Lord,
And by their faith receiv’d his word,
Then God bestow’d upon the meek,
The Priethood of Melchizedek.
By help of this their faith increas’d,
Till they with God spoke face to face:
An Enoch, he would walk with God;
A Noah ride safe o’er the flood.
Abr’ham obtain’d great promises,
And Isaac he was also blest,
A Jacob could prevail with God;
The sea divide at Moses’ rod.
The lions’ mouth a Daniel clos’d,
The fire near scorch’d his brethren’s clothes,
But time would fail to mention all
The men of faith, I’ll just name Paul.
Who did, to the third heav’ns, arise,
And view the wonders of the skies;
He saw and heard, mysterious things,
Yet all by faith, and not by wings.
Such blessings to the human race,
Once more are tender’d by God’s grace;
The Priesthood is again restor’d,
For this let God be long ador’d.
Now we by faith, like Paul and John,
May see the Father and the Son,
And view eternal things above,
And taste the sweets of boundless love.
And if, like them, we hated be,
Depriv’d sometimes of libery,
We will like them, this faith defend,
What’er our fate, unto the end.
O Lord assist thy feeble worms,
This resolution to perform,
And we thy sacred name will praise,
Throughout the remnant of our days.
[See Hymn 76, pp. 101–3, in the 1973 Herald Heritage Reprint of A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of the Latter Day Saints. 1835. Selected by Emma Smith. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams & co.]