4 Send down thy Spirit from above, That saints may love thee more, And sinners now may learn to love Who never loved before.

5 And when before thee we appear,
In our eternal home,

May growing numbers worship here,
And praise thee in our room.

John Newton, 1779.

961.

78.

1 WHILE with ceaseless course the sun Hasted through the former year,

Many souls their race have run,
Never more to meet us here:
Fixed in an eternal state,

They have done with all below;

We a little longer wait,

But how little, none can know.

2 As the wingéd arrow flies Speedily the mark to find; As the lightning from the skies

Darts, and leaves no trace behind;
Swiftly thus our fleeting days

Bear us down life's rapid stream:
Upward, Lord, our spirits raise!
All below is but a dream.

3 Thanks for mercies past receive;
Pardon of our sins renew;
Teach us, henceforth, how to live
With eternity in view.

Bless thy word to young and old;
Fill us with a Saviour's love;
And, when life's short tale is told,
May we dwell with thee above!

John Newton, 1779.

962.

1 FOR thy mercy and thy grace,
Faithful through another year,
Hear our songs of thankfulness,
Father and Redeemer, hear.

2 In our weakness and distress,
Rock of strength, be thou our stay;
In the pathless wilderness

Be our true and living way.

3 Who of us death's awful road
In the coming year shall tread?
With thy rod and staff, O God,
Comfort thou his dying head.
4 Keep us faithful, keep us pure;
Keep us evermore thine own;
Help, oh help us to endure;
Fit us for the promised crown.
5 So within thy palace gate

We shall praise, on golden strings,
Thee, the only Potentate,

963.

Lord of lords and King of kings!

Henry Downton, 1851.

1 COME, let us anew our journey pursue, Roll round with the year,

11s & 58.

And never stand still till the Master appear.

2 His adorable will let us gladly fulfil,

And our talents improve,

By the patience of hope and the labor of love. 3 Our life is a dream; our time as a stream Glides swiftly away,

And the fugitive moment refuses to stay.

4 The arrow is flown, the moment is gone; The millennial year

Rushes on to our view, and eternity's here.

5 Oh that each in the day of his coming may say, "I have fought my way through;

I have finished the work thou didst give me to do."

6 Oh that each from his Lord may receive the glad "Well and faithfully done!

[word,

Enter into my joy, and sit down on my throne.'

Charles Wesley, 1750.

964.

LIFE AND DEATH.

PSALM 90.

1 THROUGH every age, eternal God, Thou art our rest, our safe abode;

L. M.

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 Teach us, O Lord, how frail is man! And kindly lengthen out our span, Till a wise care of piety

Fit us to die and dwell with thee.

965.

Isaac Watts, 1719.

1 GOD of Eternity, from thee

L. M.

Did infant time his being draw; [years,
Moments, and days, and months, and
Revolve by thy 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 that 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.
Philip Doddridge, 1755.

966.

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 Oh 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 Oh, spare me, and my strength restore, Ere my few hasty minutes flee!

And when my days on earth are o'er,
Let me forever dwell with thee.

Anne Steele, 1760.

967.

1 TO-MORROW, Lord, is thine,
Lodged in thy sovereign hand;
And if its sun arise and shine,
It shines by thy command.

2 The present moment flies,
And bears our life away;
Oh make thy servants truly wise,
That they may live to-day.

3 Since on this wingéd hour
Eternity is hung,

Waken by thine almighty power
The aged and the young.

4 One thing demands our care:
Oh be it still pursued ;
Lest, slighted once, the season fair
Should never be renewed.

5 To Jesus may we fly,

Swift as the morning light,

8. M.

Lest life's young golden beams should die
In sudden, endless night.

968.

Philip Doddridge, 1755.

1 ONE sweetly solemn thought
Comes to me o'er and o'er,
Nearer my parting hour am I
Than e'er I was before.

S. M.

2 Nearer my Father's house,
Where many mansions be;
Nearer the throne where Jesus reigns,
Nearer the crystal sea;

3 Nearer my going home,

Laying my burden down,

Leaving my cross of heavy grief,

Wearing my starry crown;