318.

THERE is no sorrow, Lord, too light
To bring in prayer to Thee;
There is no anxious care too slight
To wake Thy sympathy.

Thou Who hast trod the thorny road
Wilt share each small distress;
The love which bore the greater load
Will not refuse the less.

There is no secret sigh we breathe
But meets Thine ear divine,
And every cross grows light beneath
The shadow, Lord, of Thine.

Life's ills without, sin's strife within, The heart would overflow,

But for that Love which died for sin, That Love which wept for woe.

319.

FOR ever with the Lord!

Amen! so let it be!

Life from the dead is in that word

And immortality!

Here in the body pent,

Absent from Him I roam,

Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A day's march nearer home.

My Father's house on high, Home of my soul! how near, At times, to faith's foreseeing eye, Thy golden gates appear!

Yet clouds will intervene,
And all my prospect flies;
Like Noah's dove, I flit between
Rough seas and stormy skies.

Anon the clouds depart,

The winds and waters cease;
While sweetly o'er my gladden'd heart
Expands the bow of peace!

Then, then I feel, that He,
Remembered or forgot,

The Lord, is never far from me,
Though I perceive Him not.

320.

JERUSALEM the Golden!
With milk and honey blest;
Beneath thy contemplation

Sink heart and voice opprest.
I know not, O, I know not
What joys await us there,
What radiancy of glory,

What light beyond compare:

And when I fain would sing them,
My spirit fails and faints,
And vainly would it image

The assembly of the saints.
They stand, those halls of Zion,
All jubilant with song,
And bright with many an angel,
And many a martyr-throng.

The Prince is ever in them,
The light is aye serene;
The pastures of the Blessed

Are decked in glorious sheen:
And they, who with their Leader,
Have conquered in the fight,

For ever and for ever

Are clad in robes of white.

*

321.

FOR thee, O dear, dear Country !
Mine eyes their vigils keep;
For very love, beholding

Thy happy Name, they weep:

O one, O only mansion,

O Paradise of joy!

Where tears are ever banished,
And smiles have no alloy :

With jasper glow thy bulwarks,
Thy streets with emeralds blaze :
The sardius and the topaz

Unite in thee their rays:
Thy ageless walls are bounded
With amethyst unpriced;
The Saints build up its fabric,
The Corner-stone is Christ.

Thou hast no shore, fair ocean! Thou hast no time, bright day!

Dear fountain of refreshment

To pilgrims far away!

Jesu, in mercy bring us

To that dear land of rest; Who art, with God the Father, And Spirit, ever blest.

322.

THERE is a river pure and bright,

Whose streams make glad the heavenly plains; Where, in eternity of light,

The city of our God remains.

Built by the word of His command,
With His unclouded Presence blest,
Firm as His throne the bulwarks stand;
There is our home, our hope, our rest.

Thither let fervent faith aspire;

Our treasure and our heart be there;
Thither, to join yon blissful choir,
May hope and love our spirits bear!

So may we reach that blest retreat,
And with the happy ransomed throng
Around His throne united meet,

And raise with them the heavenly song!