Imatges de pàgina
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3 If what we ask our God denies,
It is because he 's good and wise;
And what for evils we mistake,
He can our greatest blessings make.
4 Deep, Lord, upon the thankful breast
Let all thy favors be impressed,
That we may never more forget
The whole, or any single debt.

5 Dispose us, each revolving day,
For daily gifts, our thanks to pay;

And, though withdrawn those gifts should be, In all things to give thanks to thee.

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The Changes of Life from God.

1 As various as the moon

Is man's estate below;

WATTS.

To his bright day of gladness soon
Succeeds a night of woe.

2 The night of woe resigns
Its darkness and its grief;
Again the morn of comfort shines,
And brings our souls relief.

3 Yet not to fickle chance

Is man's condition given;
His bright and darker hours advance
By the fixed laws of heaven.

4 God measures unto all

Their lot of good and ill;

Nor this too great, nor that too small,

All is a Father's will.

5

Let each conform his mind
To every changing state;

Rejoicing now, and now resigned,
And the great issue wait.

C. M.

147.

HEGINBOTHAM.

Praise to God through all the Changes of Life.

1 FATHER of mercies! God of love!
My Father and my God!
I'll sing the honors of thy name,
And spread thy praise abroad.

2 In every period of my life,

Thy thoughts of love appear!
Thy mercies gild the transient scene,
And crown each passing year.

3 In all thy mercies, may my soul
A Father's bounty see;
Nor let the gifts thy grace bestows
Estrange my heart from thee.

4 Teach me, in times of deep distress,
To own thy hand, O God!
And in submissive silence hear
The lessons of thy rod.

5 Through every changing state of life,
Each bright, each clouded scene,
Give me a meek and humble mind,
Still equal and serene.

6 Then may I close my eyes in death,
Free from all anxious fear;

For death itself, my God! is life,
If thou be with me there.

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1 LORD, we adore thy vast designs,
The obscure abyss of Providence,
Too deep to sound with mortal lines,
Too dark to view with feeble sense.

2 Now thou array'st thine awful face
In angry frowns, without a smile;
We, through the cloud, believe thy grace,
Secure of thy compassion still.

3 Through seas and storms of deep distress
We sail by faith, and not by sight;
Faith guides us in the wilderness,
Through all the briers and the night.

4 Dear Father, if thy lifted rod

Resolve to scourge us here below,
Still we must lean upon our God;
Thine arm shall bear us safely through.

C. M.

149.

Praising God in Life and Death.

HEGINBOTHAM.

1 My soul shall praise thee, O my God!

Through all my mortal days;

And to eternity prolong

Thy vast, thy boundless praise.

2 In each bright hour of peace and hope,
Be this my sweet employ :
Devotion heightens all my bliss,
And sanctifies my joy.

3 When gloomy care or keen distress Invades my throbbing breast,

My tongue shall learn to speak thy praise, And soothe my pains to rest.

4 Nor shall my tongue alone proclaim
The honors of my God;

My life, with all my active powers,
Shall spread thy praise abroad.

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1 How gentle God's commands! How kind his precepts are! "Come, cast your burdens on the Lord, And trust his constant care."

2

While Providence supports,

Let saints securely dwell;

That hand, which bears all nature up,

Shall guide his children well.

3 Why should this anxious load
Press down your weary mind?

Haste to your heavenly Father's throne,
And sweet refreshment find.

4 His goodness stands approved
Down to the present day;

I'll drop my burden at his feet,
And bear a song away.

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1 'Tis my happiness below

COWPER.

Not to live without the cross,
But the Saviour's power to know,
Sanctifying every loss:
Trials must and will befall;

But with humble faith to see
Love inscribed upon them all,
This is happiness to me.

2 God in Israel sows the seeds
Of affliction, pain, and toil:

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These spring up, and choke the weeds
Which would else o'erspread the soil:
Trials make the promise sweet;

Trials give new life to prayer;

Trials bring me to his feet,

Lay me low, and keep me there.

L. M.

152.

MONTGOMERY.

"Return to thy rest, O my soul."

1 RETURN, my soul, unto thy rest,

From vain pursuits and maddening cares; From lonely woes that wring thy breast,

The world's allurements, toils, and snares.

2 Return unto thy rest, my soul,

From all the wanderings of thy thought; From sickness unto death, made whole; Safe through a thousand perils brought.

3 Then to thy rest, my soul, return, From passions every hour at strife;

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