Lord, in an hour of bleak despair, When life's a burden hard to bear, When love we leaned upon is lost: Your cry of anguish helps us most. Once on a time, it shook our faith, Your loss of it that hour of death; That cry in your extremity: "Why has my God forsaken me?" How foolishly we strove to find Some way of proving to the mind That easier explanations lie Behind that lonely, bitter cry. Lord, you have strengthened us to see This was your last necessity. What else was left for love to give? You knew despair that we might live.