To a Missionary Father

Lines written to her father, Elder John J. Griffiths,
laboring in the Welsh Mission.

By Katie Griffiths

The long, long time, dear father,
Since we have looked on you,
Makes all the days seem longer –
The nights seem longer too.

While in a distant country
Across the mighty sea,
We hope you’re feeling happy,
Wherever you may be.

Our kind, good mother teaches
Us how to pray for you,
When we kneel down together
At night, and morning, too.

She says, to distant nations
By God’s command you’re sent,
To preach the glorious Gospel,
And we must be content.

We pray that Jesus’ Spirit
May ever fill your heart,
And give you light and knowledge
To others to impart;

That through your heavenly counsel
The humble may be blest –
The pure in heart directed
To Zion in the west.

We pray that God will give you
Good health and appetite,
With wholesome food and clothing,
And quiet sleep at night.

When you are waiting dinner,
In homes across the sea;
When prattling, strangers’ children
Are clinging to your knee;

While gently you caress them,
Do not your feelings roam
With fatherly affection
To your dear mountain home,

Where loving hearts are beating,
And pure as mountain snow;
Where brightest eyes are beaming
With love’s deep filial glow?

Yet father, dearest father,
We do not, dare not pray
For your return to Zion
‘Till God shall name the day.

(1890)