Imatges de pàgina
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Sin's works, and ways, and wages spurn,
Lay hold upon eternal life.

4 God is thy rest; - with heart inclined
To keep his word, that word believe;
Christ is thy rest; - with lowly mind,
His light and easy yoke receive.

С. М.

153.

WATTS.

Protection, Victory, and Deliverance. Psalm 91.

1 YE sons of men, a feeble race,
Exposed to every snare,

Come, make the Lord your dwelling-place,
And try, and trust his care.

2 He'll give his angels charge to keep
Your feet in all your ways;
To watch your pillow while you sleep,
And guard your happy days.

3

"Because on me they set their love,
I 'll save them," saith the Lord;
"I'll bear their joyful souls above
Destruction and the sword.

4 "My grace shall answer when they call;
In trouble I 'll be nigh;

My power shall help them when they fall,
And raise them when they die.

5 "Those that on earth my name have known,

I 'll honor them in heaven;

There my salvation shall be shown,
And endless life be given."

L. M.

154.

TATE & BRADY.

Judah in Bondage, or Remembrance of Captivity. Psalm 137.

1 WHEN we, our weary limbs to rest,

Sat down by proud Euphrates' stream, We wept, with doleful thoughts oppressed; And Zion was our mournful theme.

2 Our harps, that, when with joy we sung, Were wont their tuneful parts to bear, With silent strings neglected hung

On willow-trees, that withered there.

3 Meanwhile our foes, who all conspired
To triumph in our slavish wrongs,
Music and mirth of us required,
"Come, sing us one of Zion's songs."

4 How shall we tune our voice to sing,
Or touch our harps with skilful hands?
Shall hymns of joy to God, our King,
Be sung by slaves in foreign lands?

5 O Salem, our once happy seat !
When I of thee forgetful prove,
Let then my trembling hand forget
The speaking strings with art to move!

6 If I to mention thee forbear,

Eternal silence seize my tongue;
Or if I sing one cheerful air,
Till thy deliverance is my song.

1

L. M.

155.

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

Imploring the constant Presence of God.

WHEN Israel, of the Lord beloved,

Out from the land of bondage came,
Her fathers' God before her moved,
An awful guide, in smoke and flame.

2 By day, along the astonished lands
The cloudy pillar glided slow;
By night, Arabia's crimsoned sands
Returned the fiery column's glow.

3 Then rose the choral hymn of praise,
And trump and timbrel answered keen;
And Zion's daughters poured their lays,
With priests' and warriors' voice between.

4 No portents now our foes amaze ;
Forsaken Israel wanders lone;
Our fathers would not know thy ways,
And thou hast left them to their own.

5 But present still, though now unseen,
When brightly shines the prosperous day,
Be thoughts of thee a cloudy screen,
To temper the deceitful ray !

6 And, O, when stoops on Judah's path,
In shade and storm, the frequent night,
Be thou, long-suffering, slow to wrath,
A burning and a shining light.

CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY.

С. М.

156.

MILTON.

The Kingdom of God on Earth. Psalms 85, 86.

1 THE Lord will come and not be slow;

His footsteps cannot err;
Before him righteousness shall go,

His royal harbinger.

;

2 Mercy and Truth, that long were missed, Now joyfully are met;

Sweet Peace and Righteousness have kissed,
And hand in hand are set.

3 The nations all whom thou hast made
Shall come, and all shall frame
To bow them low before thee, Lord,
And glorify thy name.

4 Truth from the earth, like to a flower,
Shall bud and blossom then,
And Justice, from her heavenly bower,
Look down on mortal men.

5 Teach me, O Lord, thy way most right,
I in thy truth will bide;

To fear thy name my heart unite,
So shall it never slide.

6 Thee will I praise, O Lord, my God!

Thee honor and adore

With my whole heart, and blaze abroad
Thy name for evermore.

7 For great thou art, and wonders great By thy strong hand are done ;

Thou, in thy everlasting seat,
Remainest God alone.

С. М.

157.

WESLEY.

"A light to lighten the Gentiles."

1 The race that long in darkness pined
Have seen a glorious light;
The people dwell in day, who dwelt
In death's surrounding night.

2 To hail thy rise, thou better Sun,
The gathering nations come,
With joy, as when the reapers bear
The harvest treasures home.

3 To us a child of hope is born,
To us a son is given;
And him shall all the earth obey,
And all the hosts of heaven.

4 His name shall be the Prince of Peace,
Whose rule shall stretch abroad,
The Wonderful, the Counsellor,
The great and mighty Lord.

5 His power, increasing, still shall spread;
His reign no end shall know;
His throne shall justice guard above,
And peace abound below.

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