Until he come.

851 Figure and means of saving grace.

1 AUTHOR of our salvation, thee,

With lowly, thankful hearts, we praise, Author of this great mystery,

Figure and means of saving grace. 2 The sacred, true, effectual sign, Thy body and thy blood it shows; The glorious instrument divine,

Thy mercy and thy strength bestows. 3 We see the blood that seals our peace; Thy pardoning mercy we receive; The bread doth visibly express

The strength through which our spirits live.

4 Our spirits drink a fresh supply,
And eat the bread so freely given,
Till, borne on eagle wings, we fly,
And banquet with our Lord in heaven.

Charles Wesley.

852

Rejoicing at the table.

1 To Jesus, our exalted Lord,

The name by heaven and earth adored,
Fain would our hearts and voices raise
A cheerful song of sacred praise.

2 But all the notes which mortals know,
Are weak, and languishing, and low;
Far, far above our humble songs,
The theme demands immortal tongues.

3 Yet while around his board we meet,
And humbly worship at his feet,
O let our warm affections move,
In glad returns of grateful love.
4 Let humble, penitential woe,
In tears of godly sorrow flow;
And thy forgiving smiles impart
Life, hope, and joy to every heart.

Anne Stoele.

1 JESUS spreads his banner o'er us, Cheers our famished souls with food; He the banquet spreads before us,

Of his mystic flesh and blood. Precious banquet; bread of heaven; Wine of gladness, flowing free; May we taste it, kindly given,

In remembrance, Lord, of thee.

2 In thy holy incarnation,
When the angels sang thy birth;
In thy fasting and temptation;
In thy labors on the earth;

In thy trial and rejection;

In thy sufferings on the tree,

In thy glorious resurrection;
May we, Lord, remember thee.

Roswell Park.

854 The Spirit's quickening influences. 1 COME, thou everlasting Spirit, Bring to every thankful mind All the Saviour's dying merit,

All his sufferings for mankind: True Recorder of his passion,

Now the living faith impart;

Now reveal his great salvation
Unto every faithful heart.

2 Come, thou Witness of his dying
Come, Remembrancer divine;
Let us feel thy power applying
Christ to every soul, and mine:
Let us groan thy inward groaning;
Look on him we pierced, and grieve;
All partake the grace atoning,
All the sprinkled blood receive.

855

Charles Wesley.

[8, 7, 4. Tune, Regent Square. P. 819.]
Bless us in parting.

1 Now in parting, Father, bless us;
Saviour, still thy peace bestow;
Gracious Comforter, be with us,
As we from thy table go.

Bless us, bless us,

Father, Son, and Spirit, now.

2 Bless us here, while still as strangers
Onward to our home we move;
Bless us with eternal blessings,
In our Father's house above,

Ever, ever

Dwelling in the light of love.

Horatius Bonar

REGENT SQUARE. 8, 7. 61.

HENRY SMART.

=

856 Christ the Head and Corner Stone. 2 To this temple, where we call thee, Come, O Lord of hosts, to-day: With thy wonted loving-kindness, Hear thy servants as they pray; And thy fullest benediction

Shed within its walls alway.

3 Here vouchsafe to all thy servants
What they ask of thee to gain,
What they gain from thee forever
With the blessed to retain,
And hereafter in thy glory
Evermore with thee to reign.

857

From the Latin. Tr. by J. M. Neale.

[7. Tune, Hall. Page 202.J

Christ, the Corner-stone.

1 ON this stone, now laid with prayer,
Let thy church rise, strong and fair;
Ever, Lord, thy name be known,
Where we lay this corner-stone.

2 Let thy holy Child, who came
Man from error to reclaim,
And for sinners to atone,
Bless, with thee, this corner-stone.
3 May thy Spirit here give rest
To the heart by sin oppressed,
And the seeds of truth be sown,
Where we lay this corner-stone.

4 Open wide, O God, thy door,
For the outcast and the poor,
Who can call no house their own,
Where we lay this corner-stone.

5 By wise master-builders squared,
Here be living stones prepared
For the temple near thy throne,—
Jesus Christ its Corner-stone.

858

John Pierpont.

[7. Tune, Nuremberg. Page 800.J Prayer and praise.

1 LORD of hosts! to thee we raise
Here a house of prayer and praise:
Thou thy people's hearts prepare,
Here to meet for praise and prayer.
2 Let the living here be fed
With thy word, the heavenly bread:
Here, in hope of glory blest,
May the dead be laid to rest.

3 Here to thee a temple stand,
While the sea shall gird the land:
Here reveal thy mercy sure,
While the sun and moon endure.

4 Hallelujah! earth and sky
To the joyful sound reply:
Hallelujah! hence ascend

Prayer and praise till time shall end.

James Montgomery.

859

Laying the foundation.

1 O LORD of hosts, whose glory tills
The bounds of the eternal hills,
And yet vouchsafes, in Christian lands,
To dwell in temples made with hands;
2 Grant that all we who here to-day
Rejoicing this foundation lay,
May be in very deed thine own,
Built on the precious Corner-stone.
3 Endue the creatures with thy grace
That shall adorn thy dwelling-place;
The beauty of the oak and pine,
The gold and silver, make them thine.
4 To thee they all pertain; to thee
The treasures of the earth and sea;
And when we bring them to thy throne
We but present thee with thine own.

The heads that guide endue with skill;
The hands that work preserve from ill,
That we, who these foundations lay,
May raise the topstone in its day.
860

Jehovah's presence.

J. Mason Neale.

1 NOT heaven's wide range of hallowed space Jehovah's presence can confine; Nor angels' claims restrain his grace, Whose glories through creation shine. 2 It beamed on Eden's guilty days, And traced redemption's wondrous plan; From Calvary, in brightest rays,

It glowed to guide benighted man. 3 Its sacred shrine it fixes there, Where two or three are met to raise

Their holy hands in humble prayer,

Or tune their hearts to grateful praise. 4 Be this, O Lord, that honored place, The house of God, the gate of heaven; And may the fullness of thy grace

To all who here shall meet be given. 5 And hence, in spirit, may we soar To those bright courts where seraphs bend;

With awe like theirs, on earth adore,
Till with their anthems ours shall blend.

861

God's guardian presence.

Unknown.

1 THIS stone to thee in faith we lay, To thee this temple, Lord, we build; Thy power and goodness here display, And be it with thy presence filled.

2 Here, when thy people seek thy face, And dying sinners pray to live, Hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling-place, And when thou hearest, Lord, forgive 3 Here, when thy messengers proclaim The blessed gospel of thy Son, Still, by the power of his great name, Be mighty signs and wonders done. 4 But will indeed Jehovah deign

Here to abide, no transient guest? Here will the world's Redeemer reign? And here the Holy Spirit rest?

5 Thy glory never hence depart,
Yet choose not, Lord, this house alone;
Thy kingdom come to every heart,
In every bosom fix thy throne.

James Montgomery.

862 The earthly and the heavenly temple. 1 ENTER thy temple, glorious King!

And write thy name upon its shrine, Thy peace to shed, thy joy to bring,

And seal its courts forever thine. 2 Abide with us, O Lord, we pray, Our strength, our comfort, and our light; Sun of our joy's unclouded day!

Star of our sorrow's troubled night!

3 If from thy paths our souls should stray, Yet turn to seek thy pardoning grace, Cast not our contrite prayer away,

But hear from heaven, thy dwelling-place. 4 Grant us to walk in peace and love, And find, at last, some humble place In that great temple built above, Where dwell thy saints before thy face. Mrs. Emily H. Miller.

ST. FAITH. L. M.

863 A humble offering to Jehovah. 1 THE perfect world, by Adam trod, Was the first temple, built by God; His fiat laid the corner-stone, And heaved its pillars one by one. 2 He hung its starry roof on high, The broad expanse of azure sky; He spread its pavement, green and bright, And curtained it with morning light. 3 The mountains in their places stood, The sea, the sky; and all was good; And when its first pure praises rang, "The morning stars together sang.' 4 Lord, 'tis not ours to make the sea, And earth, and sky, a house for thee; But in thy sight our offering stands, A humbler temple, "made with hands."

Nathaniel P. Willis.

BAMBERG HYMN BOOK.

Seeking a tabernacle.

2 The new Jerusalem on high Hath one pervading sanctity; No sin to mourn, no grief to mar, God and the Lamb its temple are. 3 But we, frail sojourners below, The pilgrim heirs of guilt and woe,

Must seek a tabernacle where

Our scattered souls may blend in prayer.

4 O Thou, who o'er the cherubim
Didst shine in glories veiled and dim,
With purer light our temple cheer,
And dwell in unveiled glory here.

George Robinson.