2 To thee shall annual incense rise,
Our Father and our Friend;
While annual mercies from the skies
In genial streams descend.
3 In every scene of life, thy care,
In every age, we see ;
And constant as thy favours are,
So let our praises be.
4 Still may thy love, in every scene,
To every age appear;
And let the same compassion deign
To bless the opening year.
5 O keep this foolish heart of mine
From anxious passions free,
Teach me each comfort to resign,
And trust my all to thee.
6 If mercy smile, let mercy bring
My wandering soul to God;
And in affliction I shall sing,
If thou wilt bless the rod.
GREAT God, we sing thy mighty hand,
By which supported still we stand:
The opening year thy mercy shows;
Let mercy crown it till it close.
2 By day, by night, at home, abroad,
Still we are guarded by our God;
By his incessant bounty fed,
By his unerring counsels led.
3 With grateful hearts, the past we own;
The future, all to us unknown,
We to thy guardian care commit,
And peaceful leave before thy feet.
4 In scenes exalted or depressed,
Be thou our joy and thou our rest;
Thy goodness all our hopes shall raise,
Adored through all our changing days.
5 When death shall interrupt our songs,
And seal in silence mortal tongues,
Our helper, God, in whom we trust,
In better worlds our souls shall boast.
592 BARREN FIG-Tree—or Another YEAR. H. M.
HE Lord of earth and sky,
The God of ages praise,
Who reigns enthroned on high,
Ancient of endless days;
Who lengthens out our trial here,
And spares us yet another year.
2 Barren and withered trees,
We cumbered long the ground;
No fruit of holiness
On our dead souls was found.
Yet doth he us in mercy spare,
Another, and another year.
3 When justice gave the word,
To cut the fig-tree down,
The pity of our Lord
Cried, "Let it still alone :"
The Father mild inclines his ear,
And spares us yet another year.
TERNAL source of every joy,
Well may thy praise our lips employ,
While in thy temple we appear,
To hail thee, Sovereign of the year.
2 Wide as the wheels of nature roll,
Thy hand supports and guides the whole;
The sun is taught by thee to rise,
And darkness when to veil the skies.
3 The flowery spring at thy command,
Perfumes the air, adorns the land;
The summer rays with vigour shine,
To raise the corn, and cheer the vine.
4 Thy hand, in autumn, richly pours, Through all our coasts, redundant stores: And winters, softened by thy care,
No more the face of horror wear.
5 Seasons and months, and weeks, and days,
Demand successive songs of praise;
And be the grateful homage paid,
With morning light and evening shade.
6 Here in thy house let incense rise,
And circling Sabbaths bless our eyes,
Till to those lofty heights we soar,
Where days and years revolve no more.
HARVEST HYMN.
LET all the people join,
To swell the solemn chord;
Your grateful notes combine
To magnify the Lord.
In lofty songs your voices raise,
The God of harvest claims your praise.
2 In rich luxuriance dressed,
Behold the spacious plain;
Its bounty stands confessed
In fields of yellow grain.
In lofty songs your voices raise,
The God of harvest claims your praise.
3 Fair plenty fills the land,
His mercies never cease:
The husbandman doth smile,
To see the large increase.
In lofty songs your voices raise,
The God of harvest claims your praise.
4 The precious fruits he gives,
O may we ne'er abuse;
But through our future lives,
To his own glory use.
Then rise to heaven and sing his praise,
In sweeter strains and nobler lays.
595 THE FAILURE OF HARVEST.
GREAT God, we view thy chastening hand,
That turns to brass our fertile land;
Thy clouds withhold their rich supplies,
And parched nature faints and dies.
2 Revive our withering fields with rain,
Let fruitful showers descend again;
On thee, alone, our hopes rely;
Lord, hear our humble, earnest cry.
3 Then shall the withering corn arise,
And wave its homage to the skies;
And with loud praises we will own,
Our hopes depend on thee alone.
OD of the passing year, to thee Our hymn of gratitude we raise; With swelling heart and bending knee, We offer thee our song of praise.
2 We bless thy name, almighty God,
For all the kindness thou hast shown
To this fair land our fathers trod,
This land we fondly call our own.
3 Here freedom spreads her banner wide,
And casts her soft and hallowed ray;
For thou our country's arms didst guide,
And lead them on their conquering way.
4 We praise thee, that the gospel light,
Through all our land its radiance sheds;
Scatters the shades of error's night,
And heavenly blessings round us spreads.
5 When foes without, and foes within,
With threatening ills our land have pressed,
Thou hast our nation's bulwark been,
And, smiling, sent us peaceful rest.
6 O God, preserve us in thy fear,
In troublous times our helper be;
Diffuse thy truth's bright precepts here,
And may we worship only thee.
PRAISE FOR NATIONAL PROSPERITY. L. P. M.
SAY, should we search the globe around,
Where can such happiness be found,
As dwells in this much favoured land?
Here plenty reigns; here freedom sheds
Her choicest blessings on our heads:
By God supported, still we stand.
2 Here commerce spreads her ample store,
Which comes from every foreign shore;
Science and arts their charms display,
Religion teaches us to raise
Our voices in our Maker's praise,
As truth and conscience point the way.
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