6 The cheerful tribute will I give,
Long as a deathless soul can live;
A work so sweet, a theme so high,
Demands and crowns eternity.
C.M.-Prosperity and Adversity. Eccles. vii. 14.
1 FATHER of mercies, God of love!
My Father and my God!
I'll sing the honours of thy name,
And spread thy praise abroad.
2 My soul, in pleasing wonder lost,
Thy various love surveys;
Where shall my grateful lips begin,
Or where conclude thy praise?
3 In every period of my life
Thy kindest thoughts appear;
Thy mercies gild each transient scene,
And crown each circling year.
4 In all these mercies may my soul
A Father's bounty see,
Nor let the gifts thy grace bestows,
Estrange my heart from thee.
5 Teach me, in times of deep distress,
To own thy hand, my God!
And in submissive silence hear
The lessons of thy rod.
6 In every varying mortal state,
Each bright, each dreary scene,
Give me a meek and humble mind,
Still equal and serene.
7 Then should I close my eyes in death, Without one anxious fear;
For death itself, my God, is life,
If thou art with me there.
L.M.-Grace and Providence.
1 ALMIGHTY King! whose wondrous hand
Supports the weight of sea and land,
Whose grace is such a boundless store,
No heart shall break that sighs for more.
2 Thy providence supplies my food,
And 'tis thy blessing makes it good;
My soul is nourish'd by thy word,
Let soul and body praise the Lord.
3 My streams of outward comfort came
From him who built this earthly frame;
Whate'er I want his bounty gives,
By whom my soul for ever lives.
4 Either his hand preserves from pain,
Or, if I feel it, heals again;
From Satan's malice shields my breast,
Or overrules it for the best.
5 Forgive the song that falls so low
Beneath the gratitude I owe!
It means thy praise, however poor,
An angel's song can do no more.
P.M.-Prosperity and Adversity. Hab. iii. 17, 18.
1 PRAISE to God, immortal praise,
For the love that crowns our days;
Bounteous source of every joy!
Let thy praise our tongues employ.
2 For the blessings of the field,
For the stores the gardens yield;
For the vine's exalted juice,
For the generous olive's use:
3 Flocks that whiten all the plain,
Yellow sheaves of ripen'd grain;
Clouds that drop their fattening dews,
Suns that temperate warmth diffuse:
4 All that spring with bounteous hand
Scatters o'er the smiling land;
All that liberal autumn pours
From her rich o'erflowing stores:
5 These to thee, my God, we owe;
Source whence all our blessings flow;
And for these my soul shall raise
Grateful vows and solemn praise.
6 Yet should rising whirlwinds tear
From its stem the ripening ear;
Should the fig-trees blasted shoot
Drop her green untimely fruit;
7 Should the vine put forth no more,
Nor the olive yield her store;
Though the sickening flocks should fall,
And the herds desert the stall;
8 Should thine altered hand restrain
The early and the latter rain:
Blast each opening bud of joy,
And the rising year destroy:
9 Yet to thee my soul should raise
Grateful vows and solemn praise;
And, when every blessing's flown,
Love thee for thyself alone.
P.M.-Ebenezer; or grateful Praise. 1 Sam. vii. 12. 1 COME, thou fount of every blessing! Tune my heart to sing thy grace! Streams of mercy never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above; Praise the mount - O, fix me on it, Mount of God's unchanging love!
2 Here I raise my Ebenezer,
Hither by thine help I'm come,
And I hope by thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interpos'd his precious blood.
3 O! to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrain'd to be;
Let that grace now like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to thee!
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love-
Here's my heart-O take and seal it!
Seal it from thy courts above.
P.M.-Grateful Praise. Ps. ciii.
1 CHEERFULLY my soul shall praise
God, whose mercy crowns my days,
Who forgiveth all my sin,
Cleanseth me from stains within,
Hears my weak complaints and sighs,
And my daily need supplies.
2 He with loving kindness brings
Life and healing on his wings,
O my soul, beneath their shade,
Thou shalt find eternal aid;
There reposing, ever praise
God, whose mercy crowns thy days.
1 INDULGENT Father! how divine
How bright thy bounties are;
Through nature's ample round they shine, Thy goodness to declare.
2 But in the nobler works of grace,
What sweeter mercy smiles
In my benign Redeemer's face,
And every fear beguiles!
3 Such wonders, Lord, while I survey,
To thee my thanks shall rise,
When morning ushers in the day,
Or evening veils the skies.
4 When glimmering life resigns its flame,
Thy praise shall tune my breath;
The sweet remembrance of thy name,
Shall gild the shades of death.
5 But oh! how blest my song shall rise, When freed from feeble clay,
And all thy glories meet mine eyes
In one eternal day!
6 Not seraphs who resound thy name,
Through yon ethereal plains,
Shall glow with a diviner flame,
Or raise sublimer strains.
1 MY God, thy boundless love I praise; How bright on high its glories blaze! How sweetly bloom below!
It streams from thy eternal throne;
Through heaven its joys for ever run,
And o'er the earth they flow.
2 'Tis love that paints the purple morn,
And bids the clouds in air upborne,
Their genial drops distil;
In every vernal beam it glows,
And breathes in every gale that blows,
And glides in every rill.
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