2

Groaning for Redemption.

I am the man who long have known

The strength and rage of inbred sin;
My soul is dead, my heart is stone,

A cage of birds and beasts unclean,
A den of thieves, a dire abode
Of dragons, but no house of God.

3 I dare not speak, I cannot show

The depths of Satan harbour'd there, The horrors of infernal woe,

The black and blasphemous despair; Who can conceive, but those that feel Indwelling sin, indwelling hell!

4 A stranger intermeddleth not

With our inexplicable grief;

'Tis past the reach of human thought,
The torture of this unbelief,

The struggling groan, the passion loud,
The heart that says, There is no God.

5 But will He not at last appear,

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And make His power and Godhead known?

Surely He shall the mourner cheer,

And make the broken heart His throne;

Shall break it first, and then bind up:
In hope believe ye against hope.

6 Comfort, ye ministers of grace,

Comfort My people, saith our God!
Ye soon shall see His smiling face,
His golden sceptre, not His rod,
And own, when now the cloud's removed,
He only chasten'd whom He loved.

7 Who sow in tears in joy shall reap,
The Lord shall comfort all that mourn;
Who now go on our way and weep,

With joy we doubtless shall return
And bring our sheaves with vast increase,
And have our fruit to holiness.

8 Then let us patiently attend,

And wait the leisure of our Lord:

Surely we all shall in the end
Experience His abiding word,
Shall all His gracious power declare,
And fruit unto perfection bear.

MY LORD AND MY GOD.

[John xx. 28.]

I O THOU Whom fain my soul would love, Whom I would gladly die to know, This veil of unbelief remove,

And show me, all Thy goodness show: Jesu, Thyself in me reveal,

Tell me Thy name, Thy nature tell.

2 Hast Thou been with me, Lord, so long?
Yet Thee, my Lord, have I not known?
I claim Thee with a faltering tongue,
I pray Thee in a feeble groan:
Tell me, O tell me who Thou art,

And speak Thy name into my heart.

My Lord and my God.

3 If now Thou talkest by the way

With such an abject worm as me, Thy mysteries of grace display,

Open mine eyes that I may see, That I may understand Thy word, And now cry out, It is the Lord!

4 I know Him by those prints of love,

His bleeding wounds are open wide; Through faith I handle Him, and prove,

I thrust my hand into His side, I feel the sprinkling of His blood: Jesu, Thou art my Lord, my God!

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PART II.

THE FIFTY-SECOND CHAPTER OF ISAIAH.

PART I.

I AWAKE, Jerusalem, awake;

No longer in thy sins lie down,

The garment of salvation take,

Thy beauty and thy strength put on.

2 By impious feet no longer trod,

Thy God shall cleanse thy every stain ;
O holy city of thy God,

Thou shalt not bear His name in vain.

3 Shake off the dust that blinds thy sight
And hides the promise from thine eyes;
Arise, and struggle into light;

Thy great Deliverer calls, Arise!

4 Shake off the bands of sad despair,
Sion, assert thy liberty;

Look up, thy broken heart prepare,

And God shall set the captive free.

The Fifty-second Chapter of Isaiah. 169

5. For thus the Lord your God hath said,Ye all have sold yourselves for nought; A ransom (not by you) is paid,

Receive your liberty unbought.

6 My people have been long opprest;

(No glory thence redounds to Me;)
Long have I seen them sore distrest,
Grieved at My people's misery.

7 They groan'd beneath the tyrant's chain,
Sin ruled them with an iron rod,
The suffering abjects howl'd for pain,
They groan'd, but durst not groan to God.

8 The' oppressors with insulting boast
My truth and saving power contemn'd;
My worship and My praise was lost,
My name was every day blasphemed.

9 For this My jealousy is stirr'd,

And shall a great deliverance show;
My people shall confess their Lord,

My faithfulness and mercy know.

10 Surely they all shall know My name, They all My attributes shall prove;

I am what I am call'd; I am

Justice, and Truth, and Power, and Love.

PART II.

I How beautiful His feet appear,

High on the mountain-tops, who brings

Glad tidings of salvation near,

Salvation from the King of kings!