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LIFE, DEATH, RESURRECTION, AND ETERNITY.

455.

L. M.

WATTS.

God eternal, and Man mortal. Ps. 90.

1 THROUGH every age, eternal God,
Thou art our rest, our safe abode !
High was thy throne ere heaven was made,
Or earth thy humble footstool laid.

2 Long hadst thou reigned ere time began,
Or dust was fashioned into man;

And long thy kingdom shall endure,
When earth and time shall be no more.

3 But man, weak man, is born to die,
Made up of guilt and vanity:

Thy dreadful sentence, Lord, was just,
'Return, ye sinners, to your dust.'

4 A thousand of our years amount
Scarce to a day in thine account;
Like yesterday's departed light,
Or the last watch of ending night.
5 Death, like an overflowing steam,
Sweeps us away; our life's a dream,
An empty tale, a morning flower
Cut down and withered in an hour.

456.

C. M.

WATTS.

The Same. Ps. 90.

1 OUR God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come!
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home!

2 Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting thou art God,
To endless years the same.

3 A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an evening gone;

Short as the watch that ends the night,
Before the rising sun.

4 Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

5 Like flowery fields the nations stand,
Pleased with the morning light;
The flowers beneath the mower's hand
Lie withering ere 'tis night.

6 Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,

Be thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home!

457.

L. M.

DODDRIDGE.

The steady Lapse of Time.

1 GOD of eternity! from thee

Did infant time his being draw;
Moments, and days, and months, and years,
Revolve by thine unvaried law.

2 Silent and slow they glide away;
Steady and strong the current flows,
Lost in eternity's wide sea-

The boundless gulf from whence it rose.

3 With it the thoughtless sons of men, Before the rapid streams, are borne On to the everlasting home,

Whence not one soul can e'er return.

4 Yet, while the shore on either side
Presents a gaudy, flattering show,
We gaze, in fond amazement lost,
Nor think to what a world we go.

5 Great source of wisdom! teach my heart
To know the price of every hour;
That time may bear me on to joys
Beyond its measure and its power.

458.

S. M.

DODDRIDGE.

The rapid Flow of Time.

1 How swift the torrent rolls

That bears us to the sea!

The tide that bears our thoughtless souls

To vast eternity!

2 Our fathers, where are they, With all they called their own?

Their joys and griefs, and hopes and cares, And wealth and honor, gone.

3 God of our fathers! hear;

Thou everlasting Friend!

While we, as on life's utmost verge,

Our souls to thee commend.

4 Of all the pious dead

May we the footsteps trace,

Till with them in the land of light

We dwell before thy face.

459.

C. M.

*MRS. STEELE.

Scenes of Time, transient; of Futurity, endless. 1 How long shall earth's alluring toys Detain our hearts and eyes, Regardless of immortal joys, And strangers to the skies!

2 These transient scenes will soon decay; They fade upon the sight;

And quickly will their brightest day
Be lost in endless night.

3 Their brightest day, alas, how vain!
With conscious sighs we own;
While clouds of sorrow, care and pain
O'ershade the smiling noon.

4 O could our thoughts and wishes fly
Above these gloomy shades,

To those bright worlds beyond the sky,
Which sorrow ne'er invades !

5 There joys, unseen by mortal eyes,
Or reason's feeble ray,

In ever-blooming prospects rise,
Unconscious of decay.

6 Thither, on faith's sublimest wing,
Our ardent wishes rise,

To those bright scenes where pleasures spring Immortal in the skies.

460.

L. M.

MRS. STEELE.

The Shortness of Time, and Frailty of Man. Ps. 39.

1 ALMIGHTY Maker of my frame,
Teach me the measure of my days!
Teach me to know how frail I am,
And spend the remnant to thy praise.

2 My days are shorter than a span;
A little point my life appears;
How frail at best is dying man!
How vain are all his hopes and fears!

3 Vain his ambition, noise, and show!
Vain are the cares which rack his mind!
He heaps up treasures mixed with woe,
And dies, and leaves them all behind.

4 O, be a nobler portion mine:
My God! I bow before thy throne ;
Earth's fleeting treasures I resign,
And fix my hope on thee alone.

5 Save me by thine almighty arm
From all my sins, and cleanse my faults;
Then guilt nor folly shall alarm
My soul, nor vex my peaceful thoughts.

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