NEW-YEAR'S HYMNS.

I. Time how fwift.

I WHILE with ceaseless course the sun

Hafted thro' the former year,

Many fouls their race have run,
Never more to meet us here:
Fix'd in an eternal state,

They have done with all below;
We a little longer wait,

But how little-none can know.

2 As the winged arrow flies,
Speedily the mark to find;

As the light'ning from the skies,
Darts, and leaves no trace behind;

Swiftly

Swiftly thus our fleeting days
Bear us down life's rapid ftream;
Upwards, LORD our spirits raise,
All below is but a dream.

3 Thanks for mercies paft receive,
Pardon of our fins renew;

Teach us, henceforth, how to live
With eternity in view:

Bless thy word to young and old,
Fill us with a Saviour's love;
And when life's fhort tale is told,
May we dwell with thee above.

II. Time how short.

1 TIME, with an unwearied hand,
Pushes round the seasons paft;
And in life's frail glafs, the fand
Sinks apace, not long to laft:
Many as well as you or I,
Who laft year aflembled thus,
In their filent graves now lie,
Graves will open foon for us!
2 Daily fin, and care, and ftrife,
While the LORD prolongs our breath,
Make it but a dying life,

Or a kind of living death:
Wretched they and moft forlorn,
Who no better portion know;
Better ne'er to have been born,
Than to have our all below.

3 When conftrain❜d to go alone,
Leaving all you love behind,

En

Ent'ring on a world unknown,

What will then fupport your mind?
When the LORD his fummons fends (a),
Earthly comforts lofe their pow'r;
Honor, riches, kindred, friends,
Cannot cheer a dying hour.

4 Happy fouls who fear the LORD!
Time is not too swift for you;
When your Saviour gives the word,
Glad you'll bid the world adieu :
Then he'll wipe away your tears,
Near himself appo nt your place;
Swifter fly, ye rolling years,
LORD, we long to fee thy face.

I

III. Uncertainty of Life.
EE! another year is gone!
Quickly have the feafons paft!

SEE! another

This we enter now upon
May to many prove our last :
Mercy hitherto has fpar'd,
But have mercies been improv'd?
Let us afk am I prepar'd
Should I be this year remov'd?
2 Some we now no longer fee,
Who their mortal race have run;
Seem'd as fair for lite as we,
When the former year begun:
Some, but who God only knows,
Who are here adembled now,
Ere the prefent year fhall clofe,
To the ftroke of death must bow.

(a) Líaiah. x. 3.