That ever in creation shone,
Is nothing, Lord, compared to thee
In thy own vast immensity.
4 But though thy brightness may create
All worship from the hosts above,
What most thy name must elevate
Is, that thou art a God of love;
And mercy is the central sun
Of all thy glories joined in one.
The Divine Being and Perfections. Ps. 36.
1 HIGH in the heavens, eternal God,
Thy goodness in full glory shines;
Thy truth shall break through every cloud
That veils and darkens thy designs.
2 Forever firm thy justice stands,
As mountains their foundations keep;
Wise are the wonders of thy hands;
Thy judgments are a mighty deep.
3 Thy providence is kind and large:
Both men and beasts thy bounty share:
The whole creation is thy charge;
But saints are thy peculiar care.
4 My God, how excellent thy grace,
Whence all our hope and comfort springs!
The sons of Adam, in distress,
Fly to the shadow of thy wings.
5 From the provisions of thy house
We shall be fed with sweet repast;·
There mercy like a river flows,
And brings salvation to our taste
6 Life, like a fountain full and free,
Springs from the presence of my Lord;
And in thy light our souls shall see
The glories promised in thy word.
The surpassing Glory of God
1 SINCE o'er thy footstool here below
Such radiant gems are strown,
O what magnificence must glow,
Great God, about thy throne!
So brilliant here these drops of light-
There the full ocean rolls how bright!
2 If night's blue curtain of the sky-
With thousand stars inwrought,
Hung like a royal canopy
With glittering diamonds fraught-
Be, Lord, thy temple's outer veil,
What splendor at the shrine must dwell
3 The dazzling sun, at noon-day hour
Forth from his flaming vase
Flinging o'er earth the golden shower,
Till vale and mountain blaze-
But shows, O Lord, one beam of thine: What, then, the day where thou dost shine'
4 O how shall these dim eyes endure
That noon of living rays!
Or how our spirits, so impure,
Upon thy glory gaze!.
Anoint, O Lord, anoint our sight,
And fit us for that world of light.
1 THE God who reigns alone
O'er earth and sea and sky,
Let man with praises own,
And sound his honors high.
2 Him all in heaven above,
Him all on earth below,
Th' exhaustless source of love,
The great Creator, know.
3 He formed the living flame,
He gave the reasoning
mind:
Then only He may claim
The worship of mankind.
4 So taught his only Son,
Blest messenger of grace!·
Th' Eternal is but one:
No second holds his place.
1 GREAT God! in vain man's narrow view
Attempts to look thy nature through;
Our laboring powers with reverence own
Thy glories never can be known.
2 Not the high seraph's mighty thought,
Who countless years his God has sought,
Such wondrous height or depth can find,
Or fully trace thy boundless mind.
3 And yet thy kindness deigns to show
Enough for mortal minds to know;
While wisdom, goodness, power divine,
Through all thy works and conduct shine.
4 O, may our souls with rapture trace
Thy works of nature and of grace;
Explore thy sacred truth, and still
Press on to know and do thy will.
God Incomprehensible and Sovereign.
1 CAN creatures to perfection find
Th' eternal, uncreated Mind?
Or can the largest stretch of thought
Measure and search his nature out?
2 'Tis high as heaven-'tis deep as hell;
And what can mortals know or tell?
His glory spreads beyond the sky,
And all the shining worlds on high.
3 God is a king of power unknown;
Firm are the orders of his throne;
If he resolve, who dare oppose,
Or ask him why, or what he does?
4 He wounds the heart, and he makes whole;
He calms the tempest of the soul;-
When he shuts up in long despair,
Who can remove the heavy bar?
5 He frowns, and darkness veils the moon-
The fainting sun grows dim at noon;
The pillars of heaven's starry roof
Tremble and start at his reproof.
6 These are a portion of his ways;
But who shall dare describe his face?
Who can endure his light, or stand
To hear the thunders of his hand?
The Spirituality of God. 1 THOU art, O God, a spirit pure, Invisible to mortal eyes
Th' immortal and th' eternal King,
The great, the good, the only wise.
2 Whilst nature changes, and her works
Corrupt, decay, dissolve, and die,
Thy essence pure no change shall see,
Secure of immortality.
3 Thou great Invisible! what hand
Can draw thy image, spotless, fair?
To what in heaven, to what on earth,
Can men th' immortal King compare?
4 Let stupid heathens frame their gods
Of gold and silver, wood and stone:
Ours is the God that made the heavens
Jehovah he, and God alone.
5 My soul, the purest homage pay;
In truth and spirit him adore;
More shall this please than sacrifice-
Than outward forms delight him more.
Seeing the Invisible.
1 ETERNAL and immortal King!
Thy peerless splendors none can bear;
But darkness veils seraphic eyes
When God with all his glory's there.
2 Yet faith can pierce the awful gloom,
The great Invisible can see,
And with its tremblings mingle joy,
In fixed regard, great God! to thee.
|