215.

JAMES ii. 17, to the end.

1 MISTAKEN Souls! who dream of heaven,

and raise the empty cry

Of inward joys, and sins forgiven, while slaves in sin they lie.

2 Vain are our fancies, airy flights, if faith be cold and dead;

Only a living faith unites

to Christ the living head.

3 True faith will purify the heart,
and ever works by love;
It bids all sinful joys depart,

and lifts the thoughts above.

4 While trusting in the Saviour's death, our former sins we mourn;

With fear we fly the sinner's path, to new obedience turn.

5 We joy in that great plan of grace through which we power receive, And seek the highest holiness, through Christ by whom we live.

1 THEE

216.

JAMES iv. 13, 14.

we adore, eternal Name,

and humbly own to thee,

How feeble is our mortal frame,

what dying worms are we!

2 The varying paths which men pursue, still one direction have;

Where'er we be, whate'er we do, we're trav'lling to the grave.

3 Dangers stand thick through all the ground, to push us to the tomb,

And fierce diseases wait around,

to hurry mortals home.

4 Great God! what awful things depend upon life's passing day;

And how may in a moment end

the dark and dang'rous way!

Infinite joy, or endless woe,
attends on ev'ry breath;
And yet how unconcern'd we go
upon the brink of death!

Waken, O Lord! our drowsy sense,
to walk this dang❜rous road;
And if our souls are hurried hence,
may they be found with God.

217.

1 PET. 3-5.

BLESS'D be the everlasting God,

the Father of our Lord;

Be his abounding mercy prais'd,
his Majesty ador'd.

2 When from the dead he rais'd his Son,

He

and call'd him to the sky,

gave our souls a lively hope,

that they should never die.

3 To an inheritance divine,

he taught our hearts to rise; 'Tis uncorrupted, undefil'd, unfading in the skies.

4 Saints by the power of God are kept, till the salvation come;

1

We walk by faith as strangers here; but Christ shall call us home.

218.

1 PET. i. 8.

1 NOT with our mortal eyes

Have we beheld the Lord;
Yet we rejoice to hear his name,
And love him in his word.

2 On earth we want the sight
Of our Redeemer's face;
Yet do our inmost thoughts delight
To dwell upon his grace.

3 And when we taste his love,

Our joys divinely grow,

Like those which bless his saints above,
And heaven begins below.

219.

1 PET. v. 6.

BENEATH thy mighty hand, O God!

our souls we prostrate low;

And seek in deep humility,

that we thy name may know.

2 Conscious of meanness and of guilt, we in the dust would lie;

Stretch forth thy condescending arm, and lift the humble high.

3 So in the temples of thy grace,
we'll sovereign mercy own;
And, while eternal ages roll,
extol thy grace alone.

4 The more thou raisest such as we,
the lower should we fall;
For less than nothing, Lord, we are,
and thou art all in all.

1

220.

2 PET. iii. 3-14.

WHERE is the promise, deem'd so true,

which spoke the Saviour near? E'er since our fathers slept in dust, no change has reach'd our ear.

2 Years roll'd on years successive glide,
since first the world began,

And on the tide of time still floats,
secure, the bark of man."

3 Thus speaks the scoffer; but his words
conceal the truth he knows,

That from the water's dark abyss
the earth at first arose.

4 But when the sons of men began

with one consent to stray,

At heaven's command, a deluge swept
the godless race away.

5 A diff'rent fate is now prepar'd
for nature's trembling frame;
Soon shall her orbs be all enwrapp'd
in one devouring flame.

6 Reserv'd are sinners for the hour,
when to the gulf below,

Arm'd with the hand of sovereign power,
the Judge consigns his foe.

7 Though now, ye just! the time appears
protracted, dark, unknown,

An hour, a day, a thousand years,
to heaven's great Lord are one.

8 Still all may share his sov'reign grace,
in ev'ry change secure;

The meek, the suppliant, contrite race,
shall find his mercy sure.

9 The contrite race he counts his friends,
forbids the suppliant's fall;
Condemns reluctant, but extends
the hope of grace to all.

10 Yet as the night-wrapp'd thief, who lurks
to seize th' expected prize,

Thus steals the hour when Christ shall come, and thunder rend the skies.

11 Then at the loud, the solemn peal,
the heavens shall burst away;

The elements shall melt in flame,
at nature's final day.