5 No more the drops of piercing grief
Shall swell into mine eyes;
No more the noon-day sun decline,
Amid those brighter skies.
6 There all the millions of his saints
Shall in one song unite 3
And each the bliss of all shall share
With infinite delight.
Christ's Death and Exaltation. Mat. xxviii. 56.
1 YE humble souls! who seek the Lord,
Chase all your fears away;
And bow with transport down to see
The place where Jesus lay.
2 His life for us he freely gave;
Such wonders love can do!
Thus, cold in death, that bosom lay,
Which throbbed and bled for you.
3 A moment give your hearts to grief,
And mourn your Saviour slain :
Then dry your tears, and tune your songs,
The Saviour lives again!
4 High o'er the angelic bands he rears
His once dishonoured head;
And through unnumbered years he reigns,
Who dwelt among the dead.
5 With cheerful hope may every saint
The vale of death survey;
Then rise with his ascending Lord
To realms of endless day.
Christian Watchfulness. Luke xii. 35-38.
YE servants of the Lord!
Each in your office wait,
Observant of his heavenly word,
And watchful at his gate.
Let all your lamps be bright,
And trim the golden flame:
Gird up your loins, as in his sight;
For awful is his name.
Watch! 'tis your Lord's command;
And while we speak, he's near:
Mark the first signal of his hand,
And ready all appear.
O happy servant he,
In such a posture found!
He shall his Lord with rapture see,
And be with honour crowned.
The Majesty of God. Isa. xl. 15—17.
1 YE weak inhabitants of clay!
Ye glittering insects of a day!
Low in your native dust bow down
Before the Eternal's awful throne.
2 With trembling heart, with solemn eye,
Behold Jehovah seated high;
And search what worthy sacrifice
Your hands can give, your thoughts devise.
3 Let Lebanon its cedars bring,
To blaze before the Sovereign King;
And all the beasts that on it feed,
As victims at his altar bleed:
4 Loud let ten thousand trumpets sound,
And call remotest nations round;
Assembled on the crowded plains,
Princes and people, kings and swains :
5 Joined with the living, let the dead
Rising, the face of earth o'erspread;
And, while his praise unites their tongues,
Let angels echo back the songs.
6 The drop that from the bucket falls,
The dust that hangs upon the scales,
Is more to sky, and earth, and sea,
Than all this pomp, great God! to thee.
Doddridge.
399. L. M.
New Heavens and a new Earth."
1 YON glorious orbs that gild the sky
Proclaim the God who reigns on high;
He pours the radiant stream they boast,
And marshals all the moving host.
2 But glittering stars shall cease to burn;
The sun forsake his golden urn;
This earth, these heavens, be swept away,
The splendid pageant of a day.
3 Yet will the Eternal wake to birth
More radiant heavens, a fairer earth,
Whose lustre shall admit no shade,
Whose lasting bloom shall never fade.
4 When time and death shall be no more,
To those bright realms his saints shall soar,
And, welcomed by their faithful Lord,
Shall then receive their vast reward.
+ Liverpool (Paradise st.) Coll.
1 YET a few years, or days, perhaps, Or moments, pass in silent lapse,
And time to me shall be no more!
No more the sun these eyes shall view,
Earth o'er these limbs her dust shall strew,
And life's delusive dream be o'er.
2 Great God! how awful is the scene!
A breath, a transient breath between:
And can I waste life's fleeting day?
To earth, alas! too firmly bound,
Trees deeply rooted in the ground,
Are shivered when they're torn away.
3 Great Cause of all, above, below!
Who knows thee must for ever know
Thou art immortal and divine:
Thine image on my soul impressed,
Of endless being is the test,
And bids eternity be mine.
HYMNS FOR PARTICULAR OCCASIONS, AND FOR PRIVATE AND DOMESTIC DEVOTION.
God the Refuge of the Afflicted.
1 AFFLICTION is a stormy deep,
Where wave resounds.to wave;
Though o'er my head the billows roll,
I know the Lord can save.
2 When darkness and when sorrows rose,
And pressed on every side,
The Lord has still sustained my steps,
And still has been my guide.
3 Perhaps, before the morning dawn,
He will restore my peace;
For he who bade the tempest roar,
Can bid the tempest cease.
4 In the dark watches of the night
I'll count his mercies o'er;
I'll praise him for ten thousand past,
And humbly sue for more.
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