It is a word I love to hear,
Though not of English birth;
A gentle word that fitly falls
From hapless sons of earth -
From patient souls that seek and love
The help which cometh from above.

No plainer words, no simpler words
To baby lips belong;
For turn this way, or turn it that
You cannot turn it wrong,
Any yet the holiest lips were heard
To utter first this simple word.

Two letters make this simple word;
But oh! how much they mean,
They touch on earth, they soar to heaven
They span the gulf between;
To speak it humbly it brings no shame
To those who seek their father's name.