3 This be my joy and comfort here, This pledge of future glory mine; Jesus, in spirit now appear,
And break the bread, and pour the wine.
4 From thy dear hand may I receive
The tokens of thy dying love;
And, while I feast on earth, believe,
That I shall feast with Thee above.
5 Ah! there, though in the lowest place,
Thee at thy table could I meet,
And see Thee, know Thee, face to face,
For such a moment death were sweet.
6 What then will their fruition be,
Who meet in heaven with bless'd accord?
A moment?-No, eternity!
They are for ever with the Lord.
The value of a moment.
1 AT every motion of our breath,
Life trembles on the brink of death,
A taper's flame that upward turns,
While downward to the dust it burns.
2 A moment usher'd us to birth,
Heirs of the commonwealth of earth;
Moment by moment, years are past,
And one ere long will be our last.
3 'Twixt that, long-fled, which gave us light,
And that which soon shall end in night,
There is a point no eye can see,
Yet on it hangs eternity.
4 This is that moment,-who shall tell
Whether it leads to heaven or hell?
This is that moment,
The' immortal soul we save or lose.
5 Time past and time to come are not,
Time present is our only lot;
O God, henceforth our hearts incline
To seek no other love than thine!
The various lots of man in life.
1 ONE human pair, and only one,
Were form'd in youthful prime,
All else that e'er beheld the sun,
Were children in their time.
2 For each a mother's pangs were borne, And many a father's eye
Wept o'er his infant born to mourn,
His infant born to die.
3 With millions life was but a spark,
Extinct as soon as fired;
Others, just glancing from the dark,
Wept, smiled, looked round, retired.
4 Millions and millions more have pass'd
Life's various pilgrimage,
While death at all his arrows cast,
And slew of every age.
5 Of these what multitudes untold,
Have never known their God,
But, blind, and ignorant, and bold,
In paths of ruin trod!
6 What guiltier multitudes have known,
Yet scorn'd Him, or denied;
Lived to themselves and sin alone,
And as they lived, they died!
7 We may not wander like the first;
Then, lest we share the lot
Of those more awfully accursed,
Who knew, but loved Him not,
8 May we hold fast the faithful word,
Our future time redeem,
Live, while we live, unto the Lord,
Die, when we die, to Him.
The issues of Life and Death.
1 O WHERE shall rest be found, Rest for the weary soul? 'Twere vain the ocean-depths to sound, Or pierce to either pole : The world can never give The bliss for which we sigh; 'Tis not the whole of life to live, Nor all of death to die.
Beyond this vale of tears,
There is a life above,
Unmeasured by the flight of years;
And all that life is love :-
There is a death, whose pang
Outlasts the fleeting breath;
O what eternal horrors hang
Around "the second death!”
Lord God of truth and grace,
Teach us that death to shun,
Lest we be banish'd from thy face,
And evermore undone :
Here would we end our quest;
Alone are found in Thee,
The life of perfect love,-the rest
The living and the dead.
1 Where are the dead? In heaven or hell,
Their disembodied spirits dwell;
Their buried forms in bonds of clay,
Reserved until the judgment-day.
2 Who were the dead? The sons of time,
In every age, and state, and clime;
Renown'd, dishonour'd, or forgot,
The place that knew them knows them not.
3 Where are the living? On the ground,
Where prayer is heard, and mercy found;
Where, in the period of a span,
The mortal makes the immortal man.
4 Who are the living? They whose breath
Draws every moment nigh to death;
Of bliss or wo the eternal heirs;
O what an awful choice is theirs!
5 Then timely warn'd, may we begin
To follow Christ, and flee from sin,
Daily grow up in Him our Head,
Lord of the living and the dead.
Life, death, and judgment.-Job xiv. 1-3. and 11-13.
1 FEW, few and evil are thy days,
Man, of a woman born!
Peril and trouble haunt thy ways;
Forth, like a flower at morn,
The tender infant springs to light,
Youth blossoms to the breeze,
Age, withering age, is cropt ere night;
Man, like a shadow, flees.
2 And dost Thou look on such a one?
Will God to judgment call
A worm, for what a worm hath done
Against the Lord of all?
-As fail the waters from the deep,
As summer-brooks run dry,
Man lieth down in dreamless sleep,
His life is vanity.
3 Man lieth down, no more to wake,
Till yonder arching sphere
Shall with a roll of thunder break,
And Nature disappear.
-O hide me till thy wrath be past,
Thou who canst slay or save!
Hide me, where hope may anchor fast,
In my Redeemer's grave.
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 Ah! there may we our treasure place,
There let our hearts be found,
That still, where sin abounded, grace
May more and more abound.
5 Henceforth our conversation be
With Christ before the throne:
Ere long we eye to eye shall see,
And know as we are known.
Preparation for heaven.
1 HEAVEN is a place of rest from sin,
But all who hope to enter there,
Must here that holy course begin,
Which shall their souls for rest prepare.
2 Clean hearts, O God, in us create,
Right spirits, Lord, in us renew;
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