26. Acting as seeing him who is invisible.
Eternal and immortal King,
Thy peerless splendors none can bear;
But darkness veils seraphic eyes,
When God with all his luster's there.
Yet faith can pierce the awful gloom,
The great Invisible can see;
And with its tremblings mingle joy,
In fixed regards, great God, to thee.
Then every tempting form of sin, Shamed in thy presence, disappears; And all the glowing, raptured soul, The likeness it contemplates, wears.
O ever conscious to my heart,
Witness to its supreme desire,
Behold, it presseth on to thee,
For it hath caught the heavenly fire!
This one petition would it urge,
To bear thee ever in its sight;
In life, in death, in worlds unknown,
Its only portion and delight!
Nations, attend before his throne
With solemn fear and sacred joy;
Know that the Lord is God alone,
He can create, and he destroy.
His sovereign power, without our aid,
Made us of clay, and formed us men;
And when, like wandering sheep, we
strayed,
He brought us to his fold again.
We are his people, we his care,
Our souls, and all our mortal frame:
What lasting honors shall we rear,
Almighty Maker, to thy name?
We'll crowd thy gates with thankful songs;
High as the heavens our voices raise;
And earth, with her ten thousand tongues,
Shall fill thy courts with sounding praise.
Wide as the world is thy command,
Vast as eternity thy love;
Firm as a rock thy truth must stand,
When rolling years shall cease to move.
FORGIVENESS. 7.7.7.7. (Consecration.) (First Tune) GEORGE MURSELL GARRETT, 1872.
Sovereign and transforming Grace!
We invoke thy quickening power;
Reign the spirit of this place,
Bless the purpose of this hour.
Holy and creative Light!
We invoke thy kindling ray;
Dawn upon our spirits' night,
Turn our darkness into day.
To the anxious soul impart
Hope all other hopes above;
Stir the dull and hardened heart
With a longing and a love.
Work in all; in all renew,
Day by day, the life divine;
All our wills to thee subdue,
All our hearts to thee incline.
FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE, 1829.
'At the portals of thy house.'
Lord, before thy presence come, Bow we down with holy fear: Call our erring footsteps home, Let us feel that thou art near.
Wandering thoughts and languid powers
Come not where devotion kneels;
Let the soul expand her stores,
Glowing with the joy she feels.
At the portals of thine house,
We resign our earth-born cares:
Nobler thoughts our souls engross,
Songs of praise and fervent prayers.
JOHN TAYLOR, 1802.
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