Thy love can animate the strain,
And bid it reach the skies.

6 Oh, happy period! glorious day!
When heaven and earth shall raise,
With all their powers, the raptured lay,
To celebrate thy praise.

Anne Steele, 1760.

L. M.

1 How pleasant, how divinely fair,
O Lord of hosts, thy dwellings are!
With long desire my spirit faints
To meet the assemblies of thy saints.

2 My flesh would rest in thine abode,
My panting heart cries out for God;
My God, my King, why should I be
So far from all my joys and thee?

3 Blest are the saints who sit on high
Around thy throne of majesty;
Thy brightest glories shine above,
And all their work is praise and love.

4 Blest are the souls that find a place
Within the temple of thy grace;
There they behold thy gentler rays,
And seek thy face and learn thy praise.

5 Blest are the men whose hearts are set To find the way to Zion's gate;

God is their strength, and thro' the road
They lean upon their helper, God.

6 Cheerful they walk with growing strength, Till all shall meet in heaven at length; Till all before thy face appear,

And join in nobler worship there.

Isaac Watts, 1719.

PSALM 135.

L. M.

17.
1 PRAISE ye the Lord; exalt his name,
While in his holy courts ye wait,
Ye saints, who to his house belong,
Or stand attending at his gate.

2 Praise ye the Lord; the Lord is good; To praise his name is sweet employ; Israel he chose of old, and still

His church is his peculiar joy.

3 The Lord himself will judge his saints;
He treats his servants as his friends;
And, when he hears their sore complaints,
Repents the sorrows that he sends.

4 Through every age the Lord declares
His name, and breaks th' oppressor's rod,
He gives his suffering servants rest,
And will be known, th' Almighty God.

18.

Isaac Watts, 1719.

L. M.

1 SWEET is the solemn voice that calls The Christian to the house of prayer; I love to stand within its walls,

For thou, O Lord, art present there.

2 I love to tread the hallowed courts Where two or three for worship meet; For thither Christ himself resorts,

And makes the little band complete.

3 'Tis sweet to raise the common song, To join in holy praise and love; And imitate the blessed throng

That mingle hearts and songs above.

4 Within these walls may peace abound, May all our hearts in one agree!

1 LORD of the worlds above,
How pleasant and how fair
The dwellings of thy love,

Thine earthly temples are!
To thine abode my heart aspires,
With warm desires to see my God.

2 The sparrow for her young

With pleasure seeks a nest,
And wandering swallows long
To find their wonted rest:
My spirit faints with equal zeal
To rise and dwell among thy saints.

3 Oh happy souls that pray

Where God appoints to hear;
Oh happy men that pay

Their constant service there;
They praise thee still, and happy they
That love the way to Zion's hill.

4 They go from strength to strength,
Through this dark vale of tears,
Till each arrives at length,

Till each in heaven appears:
Oh glorious seat, when God our King
Shall thither bring our willing feet!

5 To spend one sacred day

Where God and saints abide,

Affords diviner joy

Than thousand days beside:

Where God resorts, I love it more

To keep the door, than shine in courts.

Isaac Watts, 1719.

20.

H. M.

1 0 THOU that hearest prayer, Attend our humble cry,

And let thy servants share

Thy blessing from on high:
We plead the promise of thy word;
Grant us thy Holy Spirit, Lord.

2 If earthly parents hear

Their children when they cry,
If they, with love sincere,

Their varied wants supply,

Much more wilt thou thy love display, And answer when thy children pray. 3 Our heavenly Father, thou; We, children of thy grace: Oh let thy Spirit now

Descend and fill the place:

So shall we feel the heavenly flame,
And all unite to praise thy name.

4 And send thy Spirit down
On all the nations, Lord,

With great success to crown

The preaching of thy word,

Till heathen lands shall own thy sway,

And cast their idol gods away.

21.

PSALM 63.

John Burton, 1824.

1 EARLY, my God, without delay,
I haste to seek thy face;
My thirsty spirit faints away
Without thy cheering grace.

2 So pilgrims on the scorching sand,
Beneath a burning sky,

Long for a cooling stream at hand,
And they must drink or die.

C. M.

3 I've seen thy glory and thy power
Through all thy temple shine;
My God, repeat that heavenly hour,
That vision so divine.

4 Not life itself, with all her joys,
Can my best passions move,
Or raise so high my cheerful voice,
As thy forgiving love.

5 Thus, till my last expiring day,
I'll bless my God and King;
Thus will I lift my hands to pray,
And tune my lips to sing.

22.

Isaac Watts, 1719.

1 LORD, in the morning thou shalt hear My voice ascending high;

To thee will I direct my prayer,
To thee lift up mine eye:

2 Up to the hills where Christ is gone
To plead for all his saints,
Presenting at his Father's throne
Our songs and our complaints.

3 Thou art a God before whose sight
The wicked shall not stand;
Sinners shall ne'er be thy delight,
Nor dwell at thy right hand.

4 But to thy house will I resort
To taste thy mercies there;
I will frequent thine holy court,
And worship in thy fear.

5 Oh may thy Spirit guide my feet
In ways of righteousness!

Make every path of duty straight
And plain before my

face.

Isaac Watts, 1719