Sinners shall hear the sound; Their thankful tongues shall own 'Our righteousness and strength is found In thee, the Lord, alone.'

4 In thee shall Israel trust,

And see their guilt forgiven;
God will pronounce the sinners just,
And take the saints to heaven.

86

1

C. M. Mary's, 532. Charmouth, 28.
God holy, just, and sovereign.
Job ix. 2-10.

HOW

[OW should the sons of Adam's race
Be pure before their God?

If he contend in righteousness,
We fall beneath his rod.

2 To vindicate my words and thoughts
I'll make no more pretence;
Not one of all my thousand faults
Can bear a just defence.

3 Strong is his arm, his heart is wise;
What vain presumers dare
Against their Maker's hand to rise
Or tempt the unequal war?

4 [Mountains, by his almighty wrath,
From their old seats are torn;

He shakes the earth from south to north, And all her pillars mourn.

5 He bids the sun forbear to rise,

Th' obedient sun forbears;

His hand with sackcloth spreads the skies, And seals up all the stars.

6 He walks upon the stormy sea,

Flies on the stormy wind;

88

Life the day of grace and hope.
Eccles. ix. 4, &c.

LIFE is the time to serve the Lord,

The time to insure the great reward: And while the lamp holds out to burn The vilest sinner may return.

2 [Life is the hour that God has given,
To 'scape from hell and fly to heaven;
The day of grace, and mortals may
Secure the blessings of the day.]

3 The living know that they must die,
But all the dead forgotten lie;
Their memory and their sense is gone,
Alike unknowing and unknown.

4 [Their hatred and their love is lost,
Their envy buried in the dust;

They have no share in all that 's done
Beneath the circuit of the sun.]

5 Then what my thoughts design to do,
My hands, with all your might, pursue,
Since no device, nor work is found,
Nor faith, nor hope, beneath the ground.
6 There are no acts of pardon pass'd
In the cold grave, to which we haste;
But darkness, death, and long despair,
Reign in eternal silence there.

Taste the delights your souls desire, And give a loose to all your fire.

Or his dark footsteps find.]

87 L. M. Rochford, 22. Peru, 516.

God dwells with the humble and
penitent. Isa, lvii. 15, 16.

THUS saith the high and lofty One,
'I sit upon my holy throne;
My name is God, I dwell on high;
Dwell in my own eternity.

2 But I descend to worlds below,
On earth I have a mansion too;
The humble spirit and contrite
Is an abode of my delight.
3The humble soul my words revive,
I bid the mourning sinner live,
Heal all the broken hearts I find,
And ease the sorrows of the mind.
4[When I contend against their sin
I make them know how vile they've been ;
But should my wrath for ever smoke
Their souls would sink beneath my stroke.'
50 may thy pardoning grace be nigh,
Lest we should faint, despair, and die!
Thus shall our better thoughts approve
The methods of thy chastening love.]

And cheer your hearts with songs and Enjoy the day of mirth; but know There is a day of judgment too.

3 God from on high beholds your thoughts,
His book records your secret faults;
The works of darkness you have done
Must all appear before the sun.

4 The vengeance to your follies due [thro':
Shall strike your hearts with terror
How will you stand before his faec,
Or answer for his injured grace?

5 Almighty God! turn off their eyes,
From these alluring vanities;
And let the thunder of thy word
Awake their souls to fear the Lord.

91

L. M. Angel's Hymn, 60. Old 100th.
Advice to youth. Eccles. xii. 1, 7.
Is. lxv. 20.

1 NOW in the heat of youthful blood

Remember your Creator, God; Behold, the months come hastening on, When you shall say, 'My joys are gone!' 2 Behold, the aged sinner goes,

Laden with guilt and heavy woes, Down to the regions of the dead, With endless curses on his head. 3 The dust returns to dust again; The soul, in agonies of pain,

Ascends to God, not there to dwell,

Then come, receive my grace, Ye children, and be wise;

Happy the man that keeps my ways; The man that shuns them dies."

93

1

L. M. Wareham, 117. Old 100th. Christ, or wisdom, obeyed or resisted. Prov. viii. 34-36.

THUS

saith the wisdom of the Lord, 'Bless'd is the man that hears my word;

Keeps daily watch before my gates,
And at my feet for mercy waits.

2 The soul that seeks me shall obtain
Immortal wealth and heavenly gain;
Immortal life is his reward,

Life and the favour of the Lord.

3 But the vile wretch that flies from me Doth his own soul an injury;

Fools that against my grace rebel
Seek death, and love the road to hell.'

92

1

2

3

4

5

S. M. Henley, 38. Matthias, 548. Christ the wisdom of God.

viii. 1, 22-32.

SHALL wisdom cry aloud,

And not her speech be heard? The voice of God's eternal Word, Deserves it no regard?

I was his chief delight,

His everlasting Son,

Before the first of all his works,
Creation was begun.

[Before the flying clouds,

Before the solid land,

Before the fields, before the floods,
I dwelt at his right hand.

'When he adorn'd the skies,
And built them, I was there,

To order when the sun should rise,
And marshal every star.

'When he pour'd out the sea, And spread the flowing deep, I gave the flood a firm decree In its own bounds to keep.]

6 Upon the empty air

7

Prov.

1

VAIN are the hopes the sons of men

On their own works have built; Their hearts by nature all unclean, And all their actions guilt.

2 Let Jew and Gentile stop their mouths Without a murmuring word,

And the whole race of Adam stand
Guilty before the Lord.

3 In vain we ask God's righteous law,
To justify us now,

Since to convince and to condemn
Is all the law can do.

4 Jesus, how glorious is thy grace!
When in thy name we trust,
Our faith receives a righteousness
That makes the sinner just.

Regeneration. John i. 13; iii. 3, &c
OT all the outward forms on earth.
Nor rites that God has given.
Nor will of man, nor blood, nor birth,
Can raise a soul to heaven.

2 The sovereign will of God alone
Creates us heirs of grace;
Born in the image of his Son,
A new peculiar race.

3 The Spirit, like some heavenly wind,
Blows on the sons of flesh,
New models all the carnal mind,
And forms the man afresh.

4 Our quicken'd souls awake, and rise
From the long sleep of death:
On heavenly things we fix our eyes,
And praise employs our breath,

But few of nobler race,

Obtain the favour of thine eyes,
Almighty King of Grace.

2 He takes the men of meanest name For sons and heirs of God;

And thus he pours abundant shame On honourable blood.

5

99

3 He calls the fool, and makes him know The mysteries of his grace,

1

To bring aspiring wisdom low,

And all its pride abase.

4 Nature has all its glories lost,

When brought before his throne; No flesh shall in his presence boast But in the Lord alone.

97 L. M. Antiquity, 331. Langdon, 217. Christ our wisdom, righteousness, &c. 1 Cor. i. 30.

shadows of the night,

C. M. Harrington, 143. Ann's, 58.
Stones made children of Abraham.
Matt. iii. 9.

AIN are the hopes that rebels place
Upon their birth and blood,

Descended from a pious race;

(Their fathers now with God.)

2 He from the caves of earth and hell
Can take the hardest stones,

And fill the house of Abra'm well
With new-created sons.

3 Such wondrous power doth he possess
Who form'd our mortal frame,
Who call'd the world from emptiness;
The world obey'd and came.

Wisdom descends to heal the blind,
And chase the darkness of the mind.

2 Our guilty souls are drown'd in tears,
Till his atoning blood appears;
Then we awake from deep distress,
And sing, "The Lord our righteousness.'
3 Our very frame is mix'd with sin,
His Spirit makes our natures clean;
Such virtues from his sufferings flow,
At once to cleanse and pardon too.
4 Jesus beholds where Satan reigns,
Binding his slaves in heavy chains;
He sets the prisoners free, and breaks
The iron bondage from our necks.
5 Poor helpless worms in thee possess
Grace, wisdom, power, and righteousness;
Thou art our mighty all, and we
Give our whole selves, O Lord, to thee.

That hangs upon our eyes, Till Christ, with his reviving light, Over our souls arise!

2 Our guilty spirits dread

To meet the wrath of Heaven, But, in his righteousness array'd, We see our sins forgiven.

3 Unholy and impure

Are all our thoughts and ways; His hands infected nature cure With sanctifying grace.

1

NOT

Believe and be saved.

John iii. 16-18.

OT to condemn the sons of men Did Christ, the Son of God, appear; No weapons in his hands are seen, No flaming sword, nor thunder there. 2 Such was the pity of our God, He loved the race of man so well, He sent his Son to bear our load Of sins, and save our souls from hell. 3 Sinners, believe the Saviour's word, Trust in his mighty name and life; A thousand joys his lips afford, His hands a thousand blessings give. 4 But vengeance and damnation lies On rebels who refuse the grace; Who God's eternal Son despise, The hottest hell shall be their place.

1

101

L.M. Bramcoate, 8. Pierrpont, 329. Joy in heaven for a repenting sinner. Luke xv. 7, 10.

WHO can describe the joys that rise

Through all the courts of paradise, To see a prodigal return,

To see an heir of glory born?

2 With joy the Father doth approve The fruit of his eternal love;

The Son with joy looks down and sees
The purchase of his agonies.

3 The Spirit takes delight to view
The holy soul he forin'd anew:
And saints and angels join to sing
The growing empire of their King."