4 The vengeance to your follies due
Should strike your hearts with terror through:
How will ye stand before his face,
Or answer for his injur'd grace?
5 Almighty God, turn off their eyes
From these alluring vanities,
And let the thunder of thy word
Awake their souls to fear the Lord.
TOOP down, my thoughts, that us'd to rise,
Converse awhile with death;
Think how a gasping mortal lies,
And pants away his breath.
2 His quiv'ring lip hangs feebly down,
His pulses faint and few,
Then, speechless, with a doleful groan
He bids the world adieu.
3 But, O! the soul that never dies!
At once it leaves the clay!
Ye thoughts, pursue it where it flies,
And track its wondrous way.
4 Up to the courts where angels dwell,
It mounts triumphing there,
Or devils plunge it down to hell
In infinite despair.
5 And must my body faint and die?
And must this soul remove?
O for some guardian angel nigh
To bear it safe above!
6 Jesus, to thy dear faithful hand
My naked soul I trust,
And my flesh waits for thy command
To drop into my dust.
248 Aprayer for seriousness. P. M. 8.8 68.8.6 1 THOU God of glorious majesty, To thee, against myself, to thee,
A worm of earth, I cry;
A half-awaken'd child of man,
An heir of endless bliss or pain,
A sinner born to die!
2 Lo! on a narrow neck of land,
'Twixt two unbounded seas I stand,
Secure, insensible:
A point of time, a moment's space
Removes me to that heav'nly place,
Or shuts me up in hell.
3 O God mine inmost soul convert!
And deeply on my thoughtful heart
Eternal things impress:
Give me to feel their solemn weight,
And tremble on the brink of fate,
And wake to righteousness
4 Before me place in dread array
The pomp of that tremendous day
When thou with clouds shalt come
To judge the nations at thy bar;
And tell me, Lord, shall I be there
To meet a joyful doom?
5 Be this my one great bus'ness here,
With serious industry and fear
Eternal bliss t' insure:
Thine utmost counsel to fulfil,
And suffer all thy righteous will,
And to the end endure.
6 Then Savior, then, my soul receive,
Transported from this vale to live
And reign with thee above,
Where faith is sweetly lost in sight,
And hope in full supreme delight
And everlasting love.
The true repentance.
LET me now repent!
With all my idols part;
And to thy gracious eye present
An humble contrite heart!
2 A heart with grief opprest,
For having griev'd my God;
A troubled heart that cannot rest
Till sprinkled with thy blood!
3 Jesus, on me bestow
The penitent desire;
With true sincerity of woe
My aching breast inspire;
4 With soft'ning pity look.
And melt my hardness down;
Strike with thy love's resistless stroke.
And break this heart of stone!
For true repentance.
FOR that tenderness of heart
Which bows before the Lord,
Acknowledges how just thou art,
And trembles at thy word!
2 for those humble contrite tears
Which from repentance flow,
That consciousness of guilt which fears
The long suspended blow!
3 Savior, to me in pity give
The sensible distress,
The pledge thou wilt at last receive,
And bid me die in peace;
4 Wilt from the dreadful day remove
Before the evil come,
My spirit hide with saints above,
My body in the tomb.
Prayer for a renewed heart.
FOR a heart to praise my God,
A heart from sin set free!
A heart that always feels thy blood,
So freely spilt for me!
2 A heart resign'd, submissive, meek,
My great Redeemer's throne;
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone.
3 O for a lowly, contrite heart,
Believing, true, and clean;
Which neither life nor death can part
From him that dwells within.
4 A heart in ev'ry thought renew'd,
And full of love divine;
Perfect, and right, and pure, and good,
A copy, Lord, of thine!
5 Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart,
Come quickly from above;
Write thy new name upon my heart,
Thy new, best name of love.
Prayer for penilence.
LET me now repent!
O let me now believe!
Thou, by whose voice the marble rent,
The rock in sunder cleave!
Thou, by thy two-edg'd sword,
My soul and spirit part;
Strike with the hammer of thy word,
And break my stubborn heart.
2 Savior and Prince of peace,
The double grace bestow;
Unloose the bands of wickedness,
And let the captive go:
Grant me my sins to feel,
And then the load remove:
Wound, and pour in, my wounds to heal,
The balm of pard'ning love.
3 For thine own mercy's sake,
The hindrance now remove,
And into thy protection take
The pris'ner of thy love;
In ev'ry trying hour
Stand by my feeble soul,
And screen me from my nature's pow'r,
Till thou hast made me whole.
4 This is thy will, I know,
That I should holy be;
Should all my sins at once forsake,
This moment turn to thee:
O may I now embrace
Thine all-sufficient pow'r!
And never more to sin give place,
And never grieve thee more.
Hardness of heart lamented.
FOR a glance of heav'nly day,
To take this stubborn heart away,
And thaw with beams of love divine
This heart, this frozen heart of mine!
2 The rocks can rend; the earth can quake,
The seas can roar; the mountains shake;
Of feeling all things show some sign,
But this unfeeling heart of mine.
3 To hear the sorrows thou hast felt,
O Lord, an adamant might melt;
But I can read each moving line,
And nothing moves this heart of mine.
4 Thy judgments too, which devils fear,
(Amazing thought!) unmov'd I hear;
Goodness and wrath in vain combine
To stir this stupid heart of mine.
5 Eternal Spirit! mighty God!
Apply to me the Savior's blood;
'Tis his rich blood, and his alone,
Can move and melt this heart of stone.
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