3 We tread the path our Master trod,
We bear the cross he bore;
And every thorn that wounds our feet
His temples pierced before.
4 We purge our mortal dross away,
Refining as we run;
But while we die to earth and sense,
Our Heaven is begun.
1 While through this changing world we roam, From infancy to age,
Heaven is the Christian pilgrim's home,
His rest at every stage.
2 Thither his raptured thought ascends,
Eternal joys to share;
There his adoring spirit bends,
While here he kneels in prayer.
3 From earth his freed affections rise
To fix on things above,
Where all his hope of glory lies,
And love is perfect love.
4 Henceforth our conversation be,
As standing at the Throne!
Ere long we face to face shall see,
And know as we are known.
1 Almighty God! in prayer to Thee
I bow the head, and bend the knee,
With humble soul, and heart resigned:
To Thee with trembling lips I raise
The holy sacrifice of praise,
O Friend and Father of mankind.
2 In life's young morn Thou didst impart
The rivers to my beating heart,
And taught the streaming pulse to flow;
Amid sensation's changeful tide
Thou bad'st the trembling soul abide,
Alive to rapture or to woe.
3 And still unquenched, at Thy behest
The flame of being warms my breast,
But fleeting life must soon be o'er;
Soon will Thy hands again require
This transient spark of heavenly fire,
And this frail heart shall heave no more.
4 But thou, O Spirit, prompt to save,
Wilt brood upon the shrouded grave,
While wrapt in earth her offspring sleeps;
As o'er her infant's midnight bed,
With bosomed breath, and silent tread,
Her secret watch the mother keeps.
5 O Thou, that dwell'st enthroned on high !
O God of Heaven, we shall not die,
Omnipotent, All-wise, and Just!
Death shall resign his iron sway,
And love, that beams eternal day,
Shall warm our ashes in the dust.
1 As the eagle o'er her nest
Spreads her sheltering wings abroad,
So, from all that would molest,
Doth Thine arm defend me, Lord!
From my youth up e'en till now,
Of the being Thou didst give,
And the life that still I live,
Faithful Guardian still wert Thou.
All things else have but their day,
God's Love only lasts for aye.
2 When I sleep my Guardian wakes,
And revives my wearied mind;
Every morning on me breaks
With some mark of love most kind;
Had my God not stood my Friend,
Had His countenance not been
Here my guide, I had not seen
Many a trial reach its end.
All things else have but their day,
God's Love only lasts for aye.
3 As a father ne'er withdraws
From a child his all of love,
Though it often breaks his laws,
Though it careless, wilful, prove:
Even so my loving Lord
Doth my faults with pity see,
With His rod He chasteneth me,
Not avenging with His sword.
All things else have but their day,
God's Love only lasts for aye.
4 All my life I still have found,
And I will forget it never,
Every sorrow hath its bound,
And no cross endures for ever.
After all the Winter's snows
Comes sweet Summer back again;
Patient souls ne'er wait in vain,
Joy is given for all their woes.
All things else have but their day,
God's Love only lasts for aye.
5 Since, then, neither change nor end
In Thy love can e'er have place,
Father! I beseech Thee send
Unto me Thy loving grace.
Help Thy feeble child, and give
Strength to serve Thee day and night,
Loving Thee with all my might,
While on earth I yet must live;
So shall I, when Time is o'er,
Praise and love Thee evermore.
1 Blest hour, when virtuous friends shall meet,
Shall meet to part no more,
And with celestial welcome greet
On an immortal shore.
2 The parent finds his long-lost child;
Brothers on brothers gaze;
The tear of resignation mild
Is changed to joy and praise.
3 Each tender tie, dissolved with pain,
With endless bliss is crowned;
All that was dead revives again;
All that was lost is found.
4 And while remembrance, lingering still,
Draws joy from sorrowing hours;
New prospects rise, new pleasures fill
The soul's expanded powers.
5 Congenial minds, arrayed in light,
High thoughts shall interchange;
Nor cease, with ever-new delight,
On wings of love to range.
6 Their Father marks their generous flame,
And looks complacent down;
The smile that owns their filial claim
Is their immortal crown.
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