Calm me, my God, and keep me calm,
While these hot breezes blow;
Be like the night-dew’s cooling balm
Upon earth’s fevered brow.

Calm me, my God, and keep me calm,
Soft resting on Thy breast;
Sooth me with holy hymn and psalm,
And bid my spirit rest.

Calm me, my God, and keep me calm;
Let Thine outstretchèd wing
Be like the shade of Elim’s palm
Beside her desert spring.

Yes, keep me calm, though loud and rude
The sounds my ear that greet,
Calm in the closet’s solitude,
Calm in the bustling street;

Calm in the hour of buoyant health,
Calm in my hour of pain;
Calm in my poverty or wealth
Calm in my loss or gain;

Calm in the sufferance of wrong,
Like Him who bore my shame,
Calm ’mid the threatening, taunting throng
Who hate Thy holy name;

Calm as the ray of sun or star
Which storms assail in vain;
Moving unruffled through earth’s war,
The eternal calm to gain.

—Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)