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HARK, from the tombs a doleful sound!
My ears, attend the cry:

Ye living men, come view the ground
Where ye must shortly lie.

2.

Princes, this clay must be your bed,
In spite of all your towers;

The tall, the wise, the reverend head
Must lie as low as ours.

3.

Great God! is this our certain doom?
And are we still secure!

Still walking downward to our tomb,
And yet prepare no more?

4.

Grant us the powers of quickening grace,
To fit our souls to fly:
Then, when we drop this dying flesh,
We'll rise above the sky.

323. C. M. MRS. STEELE.

The death of a young person.

1.

LIFE is a span, a fleeting hour;
How soon the vapour flies!
Man is a tender transient flower
That even in blooming dies.

2.

The once-loved form, now cold and dead,
Each mournful thought employs :
And nature weeps her comforts fled,
And wither'd all her joys.

3.

But wait the interposing gloom,
And, lo, stern winter flies;
And, drest in beauty's fairest bloom,
The flowery tribes arise.

4.

Hope looks beyond the bounds of time,
When what we now deplore
Shall rise in full immortal prime,
And bloom to fade no more.

5.

Then cease, fond nature, cease thy tears;
Religion points on high:
There everlasting spring appears,
And joys which cannot die.

324. c. M.

ANONYMOUS.

Emblems of man's resurrection.

1.

ALL nature dies, and lives again:
The flower that paints the field,

The trees that crown the mountain's brow,
Divine instruction yield.

2.

Stript are the honours of their form

By winter's stormy blast,

They leave the naked leafless plain
A desolated waste.

3.

Yet soon reviving plants and flowers
Anew shall deck the plain;

The woods shall hear the voice of spring,
And flourish green again.

4.

So, to the dreary grave consign'd,
Man sleeps in death's dark gloom,
Until the eternal morning wake
The slumbers of the tomb.

5.

O may the grave become to me
The bed of peaceful rest,
Whence I shall gladly rise at length
And mingle with the blest!

6.

Cheer'd by this hope, with patient mind
I'll wait heaven's high decree,

Till the appointed period come
When death shall set me free.

325. c. M. SIR J. E. SMITH. Changes of nature types of a future state.

1.

As twilight's gradual veil is spread
Across the evening sky;

So man's bright hours decline in shade,
And mortal comforts die.

2.

Fair summer's bloom and autumn's glow
In vain pale winter brave;

Nor youth, nor age, nor wisdom, know
A ransom from the
grave.

3.

But morning dawns, and spring revives,
And genial hours return :

So man's immortal soul survives,
And scorns the mouldering urn.

4.

When this vain scene no longer charms,
Or swiftly fades away;
He sinks into a Father's arms,
Nor dreads the coming day.

5.

That day shall God's own promise bring
To those who trust his word;
While saints in endless triumph sing
The honours of their Lord.

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Courage in death, and hope of the resurrection.

1.

WHEN God is nigh my faith is strong, His arm is my almighty prop:

Be glad, my heart; rejoice, my tongue; My dying flesh shall rest in hope.

2.

Though in the dust I lay my head,
Yet, gracious God, thou wilt not leave
My soul for ever with the dead,
Nor lose thy children in the grave.

3.

My flesh shall the glad call obey, Shake off the dust, and rise on high; Then shalt thou lead the wondrous way Up to thy throne above the sky.

4.

There streams of endless pleasure flow;
And full discoveries of thy grace,
Which we but tasted here below,
Spread heavenly joys through all the place.

327. L. M. WATTS.

The Christian's hope in a future state. [Psalm xvii.]

1.

WHAT sinners value I resign;
Lord, 'tis enough that thou art mine:
I shall behold thy blissful face,
And stand complete in righteousness.

2.

This life's a dream, an empty show; But the bright world to which I go Hath joys substantial and sincere: When shall I wake, and find me there?

3.

O glorious hour! O blest abode !
I shall be near and like my God,
And flesh and sin no more control
The sacred pleasures of the soul.

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