19

1

RE

Thee, descending on a cloud,
When with ravished eyes I see,
Then I shall be filled with God
To all eternity!

EJOICE evermore With angels above,
In Jesus's power, In Jesus's love:
With glad exultation Your triumph proclaim,
Ascribing salvation To God and the Lamb.

2 Thou, Lord, our relief In trouble hast been;
Hast saved us from grief, Hast saved us from sin;
The power of thy Spirit Hath set our hearts free,
And now we inherit All fulness in thee;

3 All fulness of peace, All fulness of joy,
And spiritual bliss That never shall cloy:
To us it is given In Jesus to know
A kingdom of heaven, A heaven below.

4 No longer we join While sinners invite,
Nor envy the swine Their brutish delight;
Their joy is all sadness, Their mirth is all vain,
Their laughter is madness, Their pleasure is pain.

5 O might they at last With sorrow return,
The pleasures to taste For which they were born;
Our Jesus receiving, Our happiness prove,
The joy of believing, The heaven of love!

20

1

6-7 s.

From the central point of bliss,

Turn to Jesus crucified,

Fly to those dear wounds of his :

Sink into the purple flood;
Rise into the life of God!

2 Find in Christ the way of peace,
Peace unspeakable, unknown;
By his pain he gives you ease,
Life by his expiring groan;
Rise, exalted by his fall,
Find in Christ your all in all.
3 O believe the record true,

God to you his Son hath given !
Ye may now be happy too,

Find on earth the life of heaven,
Live the life of heaven above,
All the life of glorious love.
4 This the universal bliss,

Bliss for every soul designed,
God's original promise this,
God's great gift to all mankind:
Blest in Christ this moment be!
Blest to all eternity!

S. M.

1 Y

E simple souls that stray
Far from the path of peace,

That lonely, unfrequented way
To life and happiness,

Why will ye folly love,

And throng the downward road,

And hate the wisdom from above,
And mock the sons of God?

2 Madness and misery

Ye count our life beneath h;
And nothing great or good can see,
Or glorious, in our death:

As only born to grieve,
Beneath your feet we lie e;

And utterly contemned we live,
And unlamented die.

21

3 So wretched and obscure,
The men whom ye despise,
So foolish, impotent, and poor,
Above your scorn we rise:
We, through the Holy Ghost,
Can witness better things;

For He whose blood is all our boast
Hath made us priests and kings.

4 Riches unsearchable

In Jesu's love we know; And pleasures, springing from the well Of life, our souls o'erflow;

The Spirit we receive

Of wisdom, grace, and power;
And always sorrowful we live,
Rejoicing evermore.

5 Angels our servants are,
And keep in all our ways,

And in their watchful hands they bear
The sacred sons of grace;
Unto that heavenly bliss
They all our steps attend;
And God himself our Father is,
And Jesus is our friend.

6 With him we walk in white,
We in his image shine,
Our robes are robes of glorious light,
Our righteousness divine;
On all the kings of earth
With pity we look down,

And claim, in virtue of our birth,
A never-fading crown.

(2.) DESCRIBING THE GOODNESS OF GOD.

C. M.

1 DEHOLD the Saviour of mankind

BEHOLD the

Nailed to the shameful tree!

How vast the love that him inclined

To bleed and die for thee!

22

2 Hark, how he groans! while nature shakes, And earth's strong pillars bend;

The temple's veil in sunder breaks,
The solid marbles rend.

3 'Tis done! the precious ransom's paid,
"Receive my soul," he cries!

See where he bows his sacred head!
He bows his head, and dies!

4 But soon he'll break death's envious chain, And in full glory shine:

1

O Lamb of God! was ever pain,
Was ever love, like thine?

L. M.

XTENDED on a cursed tree,

23

Besmeared with dust, and sweat, and blood, See there, the King of glory see!

Sinks and expires the Son of God.

2 Who, who, my Saviour, this hath done?
Who could thy sacred body wound?
No guilt thy spotless heart hath known,
No guile hath in thy lips been found.

3 I, I alone, have done the deed!

"Tis I thy sacred flesh have torn; My sins have caused thee, Lord, to bleed, Pointed the nail, and fixed the thorn.

4 The burden, for me to sustain

Too great, on thee, my Lord, was laid; To heal me, thou hast borne my pain; To bless me, thou a curse wast made. 5 In the devouring lion's teeth,

Torn, and forsook of all, I lay; Thou sprang'st into the jaws of death, From death to save the helpless prey. 6 My Saviour how shall I proclaim? How pay the mighty_debt I owe? Let all I have, and all I am,

Ceaseless to all thy glory show. 7 Too much to thee I cannot give;

Too much I cannot do for thee;
Let all thy love, and all thy grief,
Graven on my heart for ever be!
8 The meek, the still, the lowly mind,
O may I learn from thee, my God,
And love, with softest pity joined,

For those that trample on thy blood!
9. Still let thy tears, thy groans, thy sighs,
O'erflow my eyes, and heave my breast,
Till loose from flesh and earth I rise,
And ever in thy bosom rest.

24

1

SAV

8-7 s.

AVIOUR, if thy precious love
Could be merited by mine,

Faith these mountains would remove;
Faith would make me ever thine:
But when all my care and pains
Worth can ne'er create in me,
Nought by me thy fulness gains;

Vain the hope to purchase thee.