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The Sabbath welcome.

1 WELCOME, sweet day of rest,
That saw the Lord arise;
Welcome to this reviving breast,
And these rejoicing eyes!

2 The King himself comes near,
And feasts his saints to-day;
Here we may sit, and see him here,
And love, and praise, and pray.

3 One day in such a place,

Where thou, my God, art seen, Is sweeter than ten thousand days Of pleasurable sin.

4 My willing soul would stay
In such a frame as this,
And sit and sing herself away
To everlasting bliss.

Isaac Watts.

86 Day of light, rest, peace, prayer. 1 THIS is the day of light:

Let there be light to-day;

O Day-spring, rise upon our night, And chase its gloom away.

2 This is the day of rest:

Our failing strength renew;

On weary brain and troubled breast Shed thou thy freshening dew.

3 This is the day of peace: Thy peace our spirits fill;

Bid thou the blasts of discord cease, The waves of strife be still.

2 Lord, in this sacred hour,

Within thy courts we bend,

And bless thy love, and own thy power Our Father and our Friend.

3 But thou art not alone

In courts by mortals trod;
Nor only is the day thine own
When man draws near to God:

4 Thy temple is the arch

Of yon unmeasured sky;
Thy Sabbath, the stupendous march
Öf vast eternity.

5 Lord, may that holier day
Dawn on thy servants' sight;
And purer worship may we pay
In heaven's unclouded light.
Stephen G. Bulfinch.

James Montgomery.

1 ONCE more, my soul, the rising day
Salutes thy waking eyes;
Once more, my voice, thy tribute pay
To Him that rules the skies.

2 Night unto night his name repeats,
The day renews the sound,
Wide as the heavens on which he sits,
To turn the seasons round.

3 'Tis he supports my mortal frame;
My tongue shall speak his praise;
My sins might rouse his wrath to flame,
But yet his wrath delays.

4 Great God, let all my hours be thine, Whilst I enjoy the light;

Then shall my sun in smiles decline,
And bring a peaceful night.

Isaac Watts.

1 AWAKE, my soul, to meet the day;
Unfold thy drowsy eyes,

And burst the heavy chain that binds
Thine active faculties.

2 God's guardian shield was round me spread

In my defenseless sleep:
Let him have all my waking hours
Who doth my slumbers keep.

3 Pardon, O God, my former sloth,
And arm my soul with grace,

As, rising, now I seal my vows
To prosecute thy ways.

4 Bright Sun of righteousness, arise;
Thy radiant beams display;
And guide my dark, bewildered soul
To everlasting day.

eyes

With strictest search survey;
The deepest shades no more disguise,
Than the full blaze of day.

3 Whom thou dost guard, O King of kings, No evil shall molest:

Under the shadow of thy wings
Shall they securely rest.

4 Thy angels shall around their beds
Their constant stations keep :

Thy faith and truth shall shield their heade
For thou dost never sleep.

5 May we with calm and sweet repose,
And heavenly thoughts refreshed,
Our eyelids with the morn unclose,
And bless thee, ever blest.

Charles Wesley.