3 Then, hence ye grovelling cares of earth!
Away ye sinful shades of night!
We will assert our heavenly birth,
And walk as children of the light.
Life and immortality brought to light by the gospel.
1 F all our hopes and all our fears
If,-travellers through this vale of tears,
We saw no better world beyond ;—
2 O what should check the rising sigh?
What earthly thing could pleasure give?
O who would venture then to die?
O who could then endure to live?
3 Yet such were life without the ray
From our divine religion given :
"Tis this that makes our darkness day!
"Tis this that makes our earth a heaven!
4 Bright is the golden sun above,
And beautiful the flowers that bloom;
And all is joy-and all is love,—
Reflected from a world to come.
Life and immortality brought to light by the gospel.
1BOUNDLESS
OUNDLESS glory, Lord, be thine!
Thou hast made the darkness shine,
Thou hast sent a cheering ray,
Thou hast turned our night to day.
2 Darkness long involved us round,
Till we heard the gospel's sound:
Then our darkness fled away,
Chased by truth's celestial ray.
3 They are blest, and none beside,
They who in the truth abide :
Clear the light that marks their way,
Leading to eternal day.
4 Ye who walk this heavenly road,
Hasting to the saints' abode,
See how bright it shines above!
There appears the God of love.
5 Soon your stronger sight will bear
To behold that glory near:
Light that now would but destroy,
Then will yield sublimest joy.
Prayer for the spread of the gospel.
GREAT God of grace! Arise, and shine
With beams of heavenly light;
From this dark world of sin dispel
The long and doleful night.
2 No more may senseless idols share
The honours due to Thee :
May every nation know thy name,
And thy salvation see!
3 No more may persecution dare
To lift her iron rod;
No longer shed the blood of saints,
And plead a zeal for God.
4 With its own pure and native light,
Lord, may thy gospel shine!
May error fly like noxious mists
Before this light divine !
5 While heaven-born truth her charms reveals,
May love each breast inspire;
Nor one base passion ever rise,
To quench this sacred fire.
The admission of Jews and Gentiles to the privileges of Christianity.
(ISAIAH XXV. 7, 8; and rev. XXI, 4, 5. XXII. 17.)
B When, throned on Zion's brow,
UT, who shall see that glorious day,
The Lord shall rend that veil away,
Which hides the nations now ?
When earth no more beneath the fear
Of his rebuke shall lie
When pain shall cease, and every tear
Be wiped from every eye?
2 Then Judah! thou no more shalt mourn
Beneath the Heathen's chain;
Thy days of splendour shall return,
And all be new again.
The fount of life shall then be quaffed
In peace by all who come ;
And every wind that blows, shall waft
Some long-lost exile home!
Reflections on the anticipations of prophecy. (ISAIAH XI. 6-9. LXV. 25.)
F earth shall ever be so blest,
1 IF That promised age
That promised age of peace and rest, Where can it linger? Prophet say Why mourn we still the distant day?
2 The tiger shall be self-controlled :
The wolf no more shall vex the fold:
The scenes on earth, like those above,
Shall smile with joy, and burn with love.
3 No widow crushed: no crushing arm :
No purposed wrong: no wish to harm:
No wish but this, the wish to find
A balm for every wounded mind.
4 Ere Virtue's call can reach the ear,
Or Virtue's eye can drop a tear,
Power, with a pitying hand, shall fly
To bind her heart, and wipe her eye.
5 Yet even then, (her anguish past,).
Say not that she has wept her last;
For still one silent tear may start,→→→
The tear that speaks a grateful heart. 2).
6 Delightful scenes!-To see them rise
How would it bless our longing eyes!
But ere such scenes on earth we see,
Alas! how changed this world must be !
The blessings of the gospel designed to be universal.
WHAT a vast oppressive weight
Of suffering loads this mortal state,
And sinks the aspiring soul!
Each day its share of sorrow brings;
Some pang the restless bosom wrings;
Some tears of misery roll!
2 Alas! how wretched were the span
Of fleeting time allowed to man,
How mournful were his doom,
Did not the gospel's cheering ray
Point to an everlasting day
Of bliss beyond the tomb !
3 That day whose glorious dawn began
When Christ, the changeless friend of man,
Dispelled the shades of night:
That day whose radiant sun shall roll,
Till all mankind, from pole to pole,
Shall dwell in endless light!
4 But O! what grateful songs of praise Shall every age and climate raise
For boundless love like this!
Which, with one vast, one wide embrace,
Encircles all the human race,
With endless streams of bliss!.
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