PRAISE, everlasting praise, be paid

To Him who earth's foundation laid; Praise to the God whose strong decrees Sway the creation as he please.

2 Firm are the words his prophets give,
Sweet words on which his children live;
Each of them is the voice of God,
Who spoke and spread the skies abroad.
3 0 for a strong, a lasting faith,
To credit what th' Almighty saith;
To embrace the message of his Son,
And call the joys of heaven our own.
4 Then should the earth's old pillars shake,
And all the wheels of nature break,
Our steady souls shall fear no more
Than solid rocks when billows roar.

THOU lovely Source of true delight,

Whom we unseen adore;

Unveil thy beauties to our sight,
That we may love thee more.

2 Thy glory o'er creation shines;
But in thy sacred word,

We read in fairer, brighter lines,
Our bleeding, dying Lord.

3 'Tis here, whene'er our comforts droop, And sins and sorrows rise,

Thy love with cheerful beams of hope,
Our fainting heart supplies.

4 Jesus, our Lord, our life, our light, O come with blissful ray;

Break radiant through the shades of night,

And chase our fears away.

5 Then shall our souls with rapture trace
The wonders of thy love;
But the full glories of thy face
Are only known above.

COME, blessed Spirit, source of light, Whose power and grace are unconfined,

Dispel the gloomy shades of night, The thicker darkness of the mind. 2 To our illumined eyes display The glorious truth thy word reveals; Cause us to run the heavenly way; The book unfold, unloose the seals. 3 Thine inward teachings make us know, The mysteries of redeeming love, The emptiness of things below, The excellence of things above.

4 While through this dubious maze we stray,

Spread, like the sun, thy beams abroad,
To show the dangers of the way,
And guide our feeble steps to God.

GOD, the gospel of thy Son,

Doth make thy holy counsels known;

2

'Tis here thy richest mercy shines, And truth is drawn in fairest lines.

Thy wisdom here its gifts imparts, To form our minds, to cheer our hearts; Its influence makes the sinner live; It bids the drooping saint revive. 3 Our raging passions it controls, And comfort yields to contrite souls; It brings a better world in view, And guides us all our journey through.: 4 May this blest volume ever lie Close to our hearts and near our eye, Till life's last hour our souls engage, And be our chosen heritage.

THY word, O Lord, is light and food,
The law of truth, and source of good:
There thou hast pointed out our way
To pardon and perpetual day.

2 May we receive it, Lord, as thine,
Receive it as thy word divine,
With firm assent, with listening ear,
With bending heart, and filial fear.

3 Make us to know its saving might,
Its quickening power, its cheerful light:
May it our stubborn hearts subdue,
And still our sinful souls renew!

4 0! let it richly dwell within,
To keep us from the snares of sin,
And guide us still to choose thy way,
That we no more may go astray.

93

LA

C. M.

ADEN with guilt, and full of fears,
We fly to thee, O Lord;

And not a ray of hope appears,

But in thy written word.

2 The volume of our Father's grace
Does all our grief assuage;

Here we behold our Saviour's face
In almost every page.

3 This is the field where hidden lies
The pearl of price unknown;
That merchant is divinely wise
Who makes the pearl his own.

4 This is the judge that ends the strife
Where wit and reason fail:

Our guide to everlasting life
Through all this gloomy vale.

THE starry firmament on high,
And all the glories of the sky,
Yet shine not to thy praise, O Lord,
So brightly as thy written word.

T

『

2 The hopes that holy word supplies,
Its truths divine and precepts wise-
In each a heavenly beam we see,
And every beam conducts to thee.
3 Almighty Lord! the sun shall fail,
The moon forget her nightly tale,
And deepest silence hush on high T
The radiant chorus of the sky-

4 But fixed for everlasting years,
Unmoved amid the wreck of spheres,
Thy word shall shine in cloudless day
When heaven and earth have pass'd away.
C. M.

95

LORD, we have made thy word our

choice.

Our lasting heritage;

There shall our noblest powers rejoice,
Our warmest thoughts engage.

2 We'll read the histories of thy love,
And keep thy laws in sight;
While through thy promises we rove,
With ever fresh delight.

3 "Tis a broad land of wealth unknown,
Where springs of life arise,
Seeds of immortal bliss are sown,
And hidden glory lies.

4 The best relief that mourners have-
It makes our sorrows blest;
Our fairest hope beyond the grave,
And our eternal rest.

THE promises we sing,

Which sovereign love hath spoke ;

Nor wilt thou, mighty King,

Thy words of grace revoke;

They stand secure and steadfast still;
Nor Zion's hill abides so sure.

2 The mountains melt away,
When once the Judge appears;