4 But if the fire, or plague, or sword,
Receive commission from the Lord
To strike his saints among the rest,
Their very pains and deaths are blest.
5 The sword, or pestilence, or fire,
Shall but fulfil their best desire,
From sins and sorrows set them free,
And bring thy children, Lord, to thee.
HYMN 319. C. M.
Hope in the Death of Friends.
1 WHILE to the grave our friends are borne,
Around their cold remains
How all the tender passions mourn,
And each fond heart complains.
2 But down to earth, alas! in vain
We bend our weeping eyes;
Ah! let us leave these seats of pain,
And upwards learn to rise.
3 Hope cheerful smiles amid the gloom
And beams a healing ray:
And guides us from the darksome tomb
To realms of endless day.
4 Be thou our comfort, mighty God!
Our helper and our friend:
Nor leave us in this dangerous road,
Till all our trials end.
5 O may our feet pursue the way
Our pious fathers led;
While love and holy zeal obey
The counsels of the dead.
6 Let us be weaned from all below;
Let hope our grief dispel ;
And death but find us trained to go
Where our best kindred dwell.
The Reunion of virtuous Friends after Death.
1 BLEST hour, when virtuous friends shall
Shall meet to part no more, [meet,
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.
1 THOU, God of mercy! wilt indulge
The flowing tear, the heaving sigh,
When righteous persons fall around,
When tender friends and kindred die.
2 Yet not one anxious, murmuring thought
Should with our mourning passions blend;
Nor should our bleeding hearts forget
Th' almighty, ever-living Friend.
3 Beneath a numerous train of ills,
Our feeble flesh and heart may fail;
Yet shall our hope in thee, our God,
O'er every gloomy fear prevail.
4 Parent, Protector, Guardian, Guide!
Thou art each tender name in one;
On thee we cast our every care,
And comfort seek from thee alone.
5 Our Father, God! to thee we look,
Our Rock, our Portion, and our Friend!
And on thy gracious love and truth
Our sinking souls shall still depend.
On the Death of a Child.
1 LIFE is a span, a fleeting hour;
How soon the vapour flies!
Man is a tender, transient flower,
That e'en in blooming dies.
2 The once-loved form now cold and dead,
Each mournful thought employs ;
And nature weeps, her comforts fled,
And withered all her joys.
3 But wait the interposing gloom,
And lo stern winter flies;
And dressed in beauty's fairest bloom,
The flowery tribes arise.
4 Hope looks beyond the bounds of time,
When what we now deplore,
Shall rise in full immortal prime,
And bloom to fade no more.
5 Then cease, fond nature! cease thy tears : Religion points on high,
There everlasting spring appears,
And joys that cannot die.
1 UNVEIL thy bosom, faithful tomb!
Take this new treasure to thy trust;
And give these sacred relics room
To slumber in thy silent dust.
2 No pain, no grief, no anxious fear,
Invade thy bounds; no mortal woes
Can reach the peaceful sleeper here,
While angels watch its soft repose.
3 So Jesus slept; God's dying Son
Passed through the grave, and blessed the
bed;
Then rest, dear saint, till from his throne,
The morning break, and pierce the shade.
4 Break, sacred morning, from the skies!
Then, clothed anew in bright array,
Immortal form! to life arise,
And swell the song of endless day.
1 WHILE beauty clothes the fertile vale,
And blossoms on the spray,
And fragrance breathes in every gale,
How sweet the vernal day!
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