Bible Songs — Invitation

Like as a Father

Like as a father pities his child,

No. 1296
Tune LIKE AS A FATHER.
Words F. E. Belden.
Music D. S. Hakes.
Key F major
Singing key E♭ major
Time 2/2
4 stanzas

Words

Like as a father pities his child,So the Lord pities the sinner defiled;Waiteth in kindness,Pities our blindness,Longeth to welcome, tho' often reviled.

Like as a father when we believe,Merciful still, he will gladly receive;Listens to hear us,Blesses to cheer us,Pities whenever his Spirit we grieve.

Like as a father, ever the same,He hath created, and knoweth our frame;Watcheth the straying,Guardeth the praying,Bids us to trust in his almighty name.

Like as a father, constant is he,God in compassion regardeth our plea;In need he cometh,Precious his promise:Father in heaven forever to be.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1296» (large, left), under hymn 1295 on p. 506; title «Like as a Father.» centred (condensed bold capitals and small capitals: «L» and «F» full capitals; final period); under it, on one line, the epigraph «"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him."—Ps. 103 : 13.» (roman, old-style figures); on the next line «F. E. BELDEN.» at the left (words) and «D. S. HAKES.» at the right (music), both in capitals and small capitals. No meter, no tune name other than the title, no tempo word and no reference line are printed; the dynamics «f», «p», «p», «m», «f» stand over the music (see `truth.json`). The four stanzas are interlinear, numbered «1.»-«4.» before the first syllable of system 1, four lines of words between the staves of both systems. Under the music, centred, above the folio «506»: «Copyrighted 1878 by J. E. White.». Each printed line of words follows the staff: system 1 holds the first two verse lines of each stanza, system 2 the last three; the stanzas are given here in their five verse lines. The words divided under the notes are joined here («pit - ies», «be - lieve», «ev - er», «sin - ner», «de - filed», «Mer - ci - ful», «glad-ly», «re - ceive», «cre - at - ed», «re - gard - eth», «List-ens», «Bless-es», «Pit-ies», «when-ev-er», «Spir - it», «al - might - y», «heav-en», «for - ev - er», «oft - en», «re - viled» → «pities», «believe», «ever», «sinner», «defiled», «Merciful», «gladly», «receive», «created», «regardeth», «Listens», «Blesses», «Pities», «whenever», «Spirit», «almighty», «heaven», «forever», «often», «reviled»); the divisions are in `lyrics_syllables.txt`. The print sets a thin space before «;» and «:» («defiled ;», «frame ;», «promise :») and around the colon of the reference («103 : 13»); it is closed up here; the curly apostrophe of «tho'» and the quotation marks are written straight. Spelling, capitals and punctuation are the print's: the comma after «father» in stanzas 3 and 4 only, «knoweth», «Waiteth», «Watcheth», «Guardeth», «Longeth», «tho'», «he» and «his» in lower case.