Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

5 My soul, thy purest homage pay,
In truth and spirit him adore;
More shall this please than sacrifice,
Than outward forms delight him more.

L. M. Angel's Hymn 60. Gould's 272. The Eternity of God, and Man's Mortality, Psalm xc.

1 LORD, thou hast been thy children's God, All-powerful, wise, and good, and just, In every age their safe abode,

Their hope, their refuge, and their trust. 2 Before thy word gave nature birth,

Or spread the starry heavens abroad,
Or form'd the varied face of earth,
From everlasting thou art God.
3 Great Father of eternity,

How short are ages in thy sight!
A thousand years how swift they fly,
Like one short silent watch of night!
4 Uncertain life, how soon it flies!

Dream of an hour, how short our bloom;
Like Spring's gay verdure now we rise,
Cut down ere night to fill the tomb.
5 Teach us to count our short'ning days,
And, with true diligence, apply
Our hearts to wisdom's sacred ways,
That we may learn to live and die.
6 O make our sacred pleasures rise

In sweet proportion to our pains,
Till e'en the sad remembrance dies,
Nor one uneasy thought complains.
7 [Let thy almighty work appear

With power and evidence divine;
And may the bliss thy servants share
Continued to thy children shine.
8 Thy glorious image, fair imprest,
Let all our hearts and lives declare ;

Beneath thy kind protection blest,

[ocr errors]

May all our labours own thy care!] STEELE. 5 L. M. Angel's Hymn 60. Paul's 246.

6

The Immutability of God, and the Mutability of the
Creation, Psalm cii. 25–28.

1 GRE

REAT Former of this various frame,
Our souls adore thine awful name ;
And bow and tremble while they praise
The Ancient of eternal days.

2 Thou, Lord, with unsurpris'd survey,
Saw'st nature rising yesterday;
And, as to-morrow, shall thine eye
See earth and stars in ruin lie.
3 Beyond an angel's vision bright,
Thou dwell'st in self-existent light;
Which shines, with undiminish'd ray,
While suns and worlds in smoke decay.
4 Our days a transient period run,
And change with every circling sun;
And, in the firmest state we boast,
A moth can crush us into dust.
5 But let the creatures fall around;
Let death consign us to the ground;
Let the last general flame arise,
And melt the arches of the skies;
6 Calm as the summer's ocean, we
Can all the wreck of nature see,
While grace secures us an abode,
Unshaken as the throne of God. DODDRIDGE.

C. M. Bedford 91. Abridge 201.
The Infinite.

1 THY names, how infinite they be!
Great Everlasting One!

Boundless thy might and majesty,
And unconfin'd thy throne.

2 Thy glories shine of wond'rous size,
And wond'rous large thy grace:

Immortal day breaks from thine eyes,
And Gabriel veils his face.

3 Thine Essence is a vast abyss
Which angels cannot sound,
An ocean of infinities

Where all our thoughts are drown'd.
4 The mysteries of creation lie
Beneath enlighten'd minds;
Thoughts can ascend above the sky,"
And fly before the winds;

5 Reason may grasp the massy hills,
And stretch from pole to pole;
But half thy name our spirit fills,
And overloads our soul.
6 In vain our haughty reason swells,
For nothing's found in thee

But boundless inconceivables,

And vast eternity. WATTS'S LYRIC POEMS.

7 L. M. Wareham 117. Ailie Street 241. Omnipotence; or, the Power and Providence of God, Psalm cxxxv.

1 YE servants of your God, his fame

In songs of highest praise proclaim;

Ye who, on his commands intent,
The courts of Israel's Lord frequent.
2 Him praise the everlasting King,
And mercy's unexhausted spring:
Haste, to his name your voices rear;
What name like his the heart can cheer?
3 Thy greatness, Lord, my thoughts attest,
With awful gratitude impress'd,

Nor know, among the seats divine,
A power that shall contend with thine :
4 0 thou, whose all-disposing sway
The heavens, the earth, and seas obey;
Whose might through all extent extends,
Sinks thro' all depth, all height transcends;

5 From earth's low margin to the skies,
Now, bids the pregnant vapours rise;
The lightning's pallid sheet expands;
And glads with showers the furrow'd lands;
6 Now, from thy storehouse, built on high,
Permits the imprison'd winds to fly;
And, guided by thy will, to sweep
The surface of the foaming deep:
7 Him praise the everlasting King,
And mercy's unexhausted spring;.
Haste, to his name your voices rear ;~
What name like his the heart can cheer?

MERRICK'S PSALMS.

8 C. M. Charmouth 28. Ellenborough 179.

[ocr errors]

The Omnipresence and Omniscience of God, Psalm cxxxix.

1 LORD! thou, with an unerring beam,
Surveyest all my powers:

My rising steps are watch'd by thee!
By thee, my resting hours.

2 My thoughts, scarce struggling into birth,
Great God, are known to thee:
Abroad, at home, still I'm inclos'd

With thine immensity.

3 To thee, the labyrinths of life
In open view appear;

Nor steals a whisper from my lips
Without thy list'ning ear.

4 Behind I glance, and thou art there;
Before me, shines thy name;

And 'tis thy strong Almighty hand
Sustains my
tender frame.

5 Such knowledge mocks the vain essays

Of my astonish'd mind;

Nor can my reason's soaring eye
Its towering summit find.

9

PAUSE.

6 Where from thy Spirit shall I stretch
The pinions of my flight,

Or where, through nature's spacious range,
Shall I elude thy sight?

7 Scal'd I the skies, the blaze divine

Would overwhelm my

soul:

Plung'd I to hell, there should I hear
Thine awful thunders roll.

8 If on a morning's darting ray
With matchless speed I rode,
And flew to the wild lonely shore,
That bounds the ocean's flood,-
9 Thither thine hand, all-present God!
-Must guide the wondrous way,
And thine Omnipotence support
The fabric of my clay.

10 Should I involve myself around
With clouds of tenfold night,

The clouds would shine like blazing noon
Before thy piercing sight.

11 The beams of noon, the midnight hour, Are both alike to thee:

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

C. M. Abridge 201. Canterbury 199 Divine Sovereignty; or, God's Dominion and Decrees.

1 KEEP silence, all created things;
And wait your Maker's nod:

My soul stands trembling, while she sings
The honours 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.

8 Chain'd to his throne, a volume lies, With all the fates of men,

« AnteriorContinuar »