1 Father, our children keep; We know not what is coming on the earth; Beneath the shadow of Thy heavenly wing O keep them, keep them, Thou who gav’st them birth. 2 Father, draw nearer us; Draw firmer round us Thy protecting arm; O clasp our children closer to Thy side, Uninjured in the day of earth’s alarm. 3 Them in Thy chambers hide; O hide them and preserve them calm and safe, When sin abounds, and error flows abroad, And Satan tempts, and human passions chafe. 4 O keep them undefiled, Unspotted from a tempting world of sin, That, clothed in white, through the bright city-gates, They may with us in triumph enter in.