The Spirituality of God. 1 THOU art, O God, a spirit pure, Invisible to mortal eyes
Th' immortal and th' eternal King,
The great, the good, the only wise.
2 Whilst nature changes, and her works
Corrupt, decay, dissolve, and die,
Thy essence pure no change shall see,
Secure of immortality.
3 Thou great Invisible! what hand
Can draw thy image, spotless, fair?
To what in heaven, to what on earth,
Can men th' immortal King compare?
4 Let stupid heathens frame their gods
Of gold and silver, wood and stone:
Ours is the God that made the heavens
Jehovah he, and God alone.
5 My soul, the purest homage pay;
In truth and spirit him adore;
More shall this please than sacrifice
Than outward forms delight him more.
Seeing the Invisible.
1 ETERNAL and immortal King!
Thy peerless splendors none can bear;
But darkness veils seraphic eyes
When God with all his glory's there.
2 Yet faith can pierce the awful gloom,
The great Invisible can see,
And with its tremblings mingle joy,
In fixed regard, great God! to thee.
3 Then every tempting form of sin,
Awed by thy presence, disappears;
And all the glowing, raptured soul
The likeness it contemplates wears.
4 O ever conscious to my heart
Witness to its supreme desire!
Behold it presseth on to thee,
For it hath caught the heavenly fire.
5 This one petition would we urge,-
To bear thee ever in our sight,
In life, in death, in worlds unknown,
Our only portion and delight..
1 THE Lord descended from above,
And bowed the heavens most high,
And underneath his feet he cast
The darkness of the sky.
2 On cherubim and seraphim
Full royally he rode,
And on the wings of mighty winds
Came flying all abroad.
3 He sat serene upon the floods
Their fury to restrain,
And he, as sovereign Lord and King,
Forevermore shall reign.
God exalted above all Praise.
1 ETERNAL Power, whose high abode Becomes the grandeur of our GodInfinite lengths beyond the bounds Where stars revolve their little rounds!
2 Lord, what shall earth and ashes do?
We would adore our Maker too;
From sin and dust to thee we cry,
The Great, the Holy, and the High!
3 Earth from afar has heard thy fame,
And worms have learnt to lisp thy name;
But O, the glories of thy mind
Leave all our soaring thoughts behind.
4 God is in heaven, but man below:
Be short our tunes our words be few.
A sacred reverence checks our songs,
And praise sits silent on our tongues.
The Majesty and Dominion of God. Ps. 93.
1 WITH glory clad, with strength arrayed,
The Lord, that o'er all nature reigns,
The world's foundations firmly laid,
And the vast fabric still sustains.
2 How surely 'stablished is thy throne,
Which shall no change or period see!
For thou, O Lord, and thou alone,
Art God from all eternity.
3 The floods, O Lord, lift up their voice,
And toss their troubled waves on high;
But God above can still their noise,
And make the angry sea comply.
4 Thy promise, Lord, is ever sure;
And they that in thy house would dwell,
That happy station to secure,
Must still in holiness excel.
God's Infinite and Eternal Dominion.
1 GREAT God, how infinite art thou!
How weak and frail are we!
Let the whole race of creatures bow,
And pay their praise to thee.
2 Thy throne eternal ages stood
Ere seas or stars were made;
Thou art the ever-living God,
Were all the nations dead.
3 Nature and time all open lie
To thine immense survey,
From the formation of the sky
To the great burning day.
4 Eternity, with all its years,
Stands present in thy view;
To thee there's nothing old appears
Great God! there's nothing new.
5 Our lives through various scenes are drawn,
And vexed with trifling cares,
While thine eternal thoughts move on
Thine undisturbed affairs.
6 Great God, how infinite art thou!
How weak and frail are we!
Let the whole race of creatures bow,
And pay their praise to thee.
Decrees and Dominion of God.
1 KEEP silence, all created things,
And wait your Maker's nod ;-
My soul stands trembling while she sings
The honors of her God.
2 Life, death, and hell, and worlds unknown,
Hang on his firm decree:
He sits on no precarious throne,
Nor borrows leave to be.
3 Here, he exalts neglected worms
To sceptres and a crown;
And there, the following page he turns,
And treads the monarch down.
4 No creature asks the reason why,
Nor God the reason gives;
No fav'rite angel dares to pry
Between the folded leaves.
5 My God, I would not long to see
My fate with curious eyes—
What gloomy lines are writ for
Or what bright scenes may rise.
6 In thy fair book of life and grace
O may I find my name
Recorded, in some humble place,
Beneath my Lord, the Lamb.
Decrees and Providence of God.
1 LET the whole race of creatures lie
Abased before the Lord:
Whate'er his mighty hand has formed,
He governs with a word.
2 Ten thousand ages ere the skies
Were into motion brought,
All the long years and worlds to come
Stood present to his thought.
3 There's not a sparrow nor a worm
O'erlooked in his decrees;
He raises monarchs to their thrones,
Or sinks them as he please.
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