New Every Morning

 

Today we remember John Keble, Priest, Tractarian, Poet 1792 -1866

John was the son of a priest. He was a great scholar, becoming a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford at the age of nineteen, a few years before his ordination. His wrote a collection of poems, The Christian Year, 1827, and was elected Professor of Poetry in Oxford in 1831. He was a leader of the Tractarian movement, often known as the Oxford Movement, which encouraged a greater valuing of liturgy and worship but unlike Newman he stayed in the Church of England, content as a priest in a parish near Winchester until he died in 1866. He continued to write scholarly books and was greatly admired for his spiritual wisdom.

New every morning is the love

our wakening and uprising prove;

through sleep and darkness safely brought,

restored to life and power and thought.

 

New mercies, each returning day,

around us hover while we pray;

new perils past, new sins forgiven,

new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.

 

If on our daily course our mind

beset to hallow all we find,

new treasures still, of countless price,

God will provide for sacrifice.

 

Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,

as more of heaven in each we see;

some softening gleam of love and prayer

shall dawn on every cross and care.

 

The trivial round, the common task,

will furnish all we ought to ask;

room to deny ourselves; a road

to bring us daily nearer God.

 

Only, O Lord, in thy dear love,

fit us for perfect rest above;

and help us, this and every day,

to live more nearly as we pray.

Keble