Eternal God, we look to Thee

Eternal God, we look to Thee. James Merrick* (1720-1769). From Merrick’s Poems, on Sacred Subjects (Oxford, 1763), where it was entitled ‘The Ignorance of Man’. It had eight 4-line stanzas, beginning: Behold yon new-born Infant, griev’d   With hunger, thirst, and pain; That asks to have the wants reliev’d,   It knows not to explain. Merrick goes on to reflect that in his relationship to God he is an infant, ‘though long in years mature’, not knowing the source of his distress or his cure. Most books use stanzas 5, 6, and 8, neatly altered:             Merrick, 1763                                                       Hymnals Author of Good, to Thee I turn;                     Eternal...