6 He the broken spirit cheers :
Turns to joy the mourner's tears;
Such the wonders of His ways:
Praise His name-for ever praise.

C.M.

W. DRENNAN.

129 The heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee.

2 Chronicles vi. 18.

HE heaven of heavens cannot contain

TH

The Universal Lord;

Yet He in humble hearts will deign

To dwell and be adored.

2 Where'er ascends the sacrifice
Of fervent praise and prayer,
Or on the earth, or in the skies,
The Heaven of God is there.

3 His presence there is spread abroad Through realms, through worlds unknown; Who seeks the mercies of His God

Is ever near His Throne.

L.M.

T. W. HIGGINSON.

130 God is great, and we know Him not.

I

Job xxxvi. 26.

O human eyes Thy face may see;

N°

No human thought Thy form may know; But all creation dwells in Thee,

And Thy great life through all doth flow!
2 And yet, O strange and wondrous thought!
Thou art a God who hearest prayer, ·
And every heart with sorrow fraught
To seek Thy present aid may dare.

3 And though most weak our efforts seem
Into one creed these thoughts to bind,
And vain the intellectual dream,

To see and know th' Eternal mind;

4 Yet Thou wilt turn them not aside, Who cannot solve Thy life divine, But would give up all reason's pride

To know their hearts approved by Thine. 5 So though we faint on life's dark hill,

And Thought grow weak and Knowledge flee, Yet Faith shall teach us courage still,

And Love shall guide us on to Thee.

131

I

YE

L.M.
Psalm cxiii.

E servants of the Almighty King,
In every age His praises sing:
Where'er the sun shall rise or set,
The nations shall His praise repeat.
2 Above the earth, beyond the sky,

Stands His high throne of majesty ;
Nor time nor place His power restrain,
Nor bound His universal reign.

WATTS.*

3 He formed the stars, those heavenly flames;
He counts their numbers, calls their names!
His wisdom's vast, and knows no bound,
A deep where all our thoughts are drowned.
4 Great is our Lord and great His might,
And all His glories infinite.

He crowns the meek, rewards the just,
And treads the wicked to the dust.

5 Behold His love: He stoops to view
What saints above and angels do ;
And condescends yet more to know
The mean affairs of men below.

6 O may the sons of men record

The wondrous goodness of the Lord!
How great His works! how kind His ways!
Let every tongue pronounce His praise.

HIS LOVE AND GOODNESS.

132

I

His mercy

endureth for ever.-Psalm cxxxvi. 1. LOVE of God, how strong and true! Eternal and yet ever new, Uncomprehended and unbought, Beyond all knowledge and all thought. 2 O love of God! how deep and great! Far deeper than man's deepest hate ; Self-fed, self-kindled like the light, Changeless, eternal, infinite.

3 O heavenly love, how precious still,
In days of weariness and ill!

In nights of pain and helplessness,
To heal, to comfort, and to bless.
4 O wide-embracing, wondrous love,
We read thee in the sky above !
We read thee in the earth below,
In seas that swell and streams that flow.
5 We read thee best in Him who came
To bear for us the cross of shame ;
Sent by the Father from on high,
Our life to live, our death to die.

6 O love of God, our shield and stay,
Through all the perils of our way;
Eternal love, in thee we rest,
For ever safe, for ever blessed.

8,7,

SIR JOHN BOWRING.

133 How great is His goodness.-Zech. ix. 17.

I

GOD

OD is love! His mercy brightens
All the path in which we rove;
Bliss He wakes, and woe He lightens ;
God is wisdom! God is love!

2 Chance and change are busy ever ;
Man decays, and ages move;
But His mercy waneth never :
God is wisdom! God is love!

3 E'en the hour that darkest seemeth,
Will His changeless goodness prove;
From the mist His brightness streameth:
God is wisdom! God is love!

4 He with earthly cares entwineth
Hope and comfort from above!
Everywhere His glory shineth:

God is wisdom! God is love!

5 God is love! His mercy brightens
All the path in which we rove!
Bliss He makes, and woe He lightens :
God is wisdom! God is love!

134

I

THO

C.M.

God is love.-1 John iv. 8.

[J. D. BURNS.]

HOU, Lord, art love, and everywhere
Thy name is brightly shown;
Beneath, on earth-Thy footstool fair,
Above, in heaven-Thy throne.

2 Thy word is love-in lines of gold
There mercy prints its trace;
In nature we Thy steps behold,
The gospel shows Thy face.

3 Thy ways are love-though they transcend
Our feeble range of sight;

They wind through darkness to their end,
In everlasting light.

4 Thy thoughts are love, and Jesus is
The loving voice they find;

His love lights up the vast abyss

Of the Eternal Mind.

5 Thy chastisements are love-more deep
They stamp the seal Divine ;

And by a sweet compulsion keep
Our spirits nearer Thine.

6 Thy heaven is the abode of love!
O blessed Lord, that we

May there, when time's dim shades remove,
Be gathered home to Thee!

7 Then with Thy resting saints to fall
Adoring round Thy throne,

When all shall love Thee, Lord, and all
Shall in Thy love be one.

87,87,47.

J. S. B. MONSELL.

135 The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

Psalm xxxiii. 5.

I OD is love-the heavens tell it

Through their glorious orbs of light,
In that glad and golden language
Speaking to us, day and night,
Their great story,

God is love, and God is might!

2 And the teeming earth rejoices
In that message from above,
With ten thousand thousand voices,
Telling back from hill and grove,
Her glad story,
God is might, and God is love!