1061

Plea for sparing mercy.

LORD, let me know mine end;

My days, how brief their date;
That I may timely comprehend
How frail my best estate.
2 My life is but a span;

Mine age is naught with thee;
And, in his highest honour, man
Is dust and vanity.

3 At thy rebuke the bloom Of earthly beauty flies;

S. M.

And grief shall like a moth consume
All that delights our eyes.

4 Have pity on my fears;

Hearken to my request;

Turn not in silence from my tears, the mourner rest.

But give

5 O spare me yet, I pray;

Awhile my strength restore,

Ere I am summon'd hence away,
And seen on earth no more.

1062

The soul's best portion.

L. M.

LMIGHTY 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 mix'd with wo, 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.

1063

Our fathers; where are they?
OW swift the torrent rolls

HOW

That bears us to the sea;

S. M.

The tide that hurries thoughtless souls
To vast eternity.

2 Our fathers, where are they,

With all they call'd their own? Their joys and griefs, and hopes and cares, And wealth and honour, 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.

1064

4th P. M. 886, 886.

The brink of fate.

O! on a narrow neck of land,

L%

"Twixt two unbounded seas, I stand, Secure, insensible:

A point of time, a moment's space,
Removes me to that heavenly place,
Or shuts me up in hell.

2 O God, mine inmost soul convert,
And deeply on my thoughtful heart
Eternal things impress:

Give me to feel their solemn weight,
And tremble on the brink of fate,
And wake to righteousness.

3 Before me place, in dread array,
The pomp of that tremendous day,

When thou with clouds shalt come
To judge the nations at thy bar;
And tell me, Lord, shall I be there,
To meet a joyful doom?

4 Be this my one great business here—
With serious industry and fear
Eternal bliss to' ensure;
Thine utmost counsel to fulfil,
And suffer all thy righteous will,
And to the end endure.

5 Then, Saviour, then my soul receive,
Transported from this vale, to live
And reign with thee above,
Where faith is sweetly lost in sight,
And hope in full, supreme delight,
And everlasting love.

1065

L. M.

The inevitable doom.

REMENDOUS God, with humble fear, Prostrate before thy awful throne, The word unchangeable we hearThy sov'reign righteousness we own. 2 "Tis fit we should to dust return, Since such the will of God Most High; In sin conceived, to trouble born, Born to lament, and toil, and die. 3 Submissive to thy just decree, We all shall soon from earth remove; But when thou sendest, Lord, for me, O let the messenger be love.

4 Whisper thy love into my heart; Warn me of my approaching end; And then I joyfully depart,

And then I to thy arms ascend.

1066

L. M.

A peaceful death expected, and prayed for.

SHRINKING from the cold hand of death,

soon shall gather up my feet;

Shall soon resign this fleeting breath,
And die,-my fathers' God to meet.

2 Number'd among thy people, I
Expect with joy thy face to see:
Because thou didst for sinners die,
Jesus, in death remember me!

I

30 that, without a ling'ring groan,
may
the welcome word receive;
My body with my charge lay down,

And cease at once to work and live.

4 Walk with me through the dreadful shade, And, certified that thou art mine, My spirit, calm and undismay'd,

I shall into thy hands resign.

5 No anxious doubt, no guilty gloom,
Shall damp whom Jesus' presence cheers:
My Light, my Life, my God is come,
And glory in his face appears.

1067

I am going the way of all the earth.

Pasnd all that now

L. M.

ASS a few swiftly fleeting years, And all that now in bodies live Shall quit, like me, the vale of tears, Their righteous sentence to receive.

2 But all, before they hence remove, May mansions for themselves prepare In that eternal house above;

And, O my God, shall I be there?

DEATH AND RESURRECTION.

1068

Solemn thoughts on the future.

AND am I born to die?

S. M.

To lay this body down?
And must my trembling spirit fly
Into a world unknown ?-
A land of deepest shade,

Unpierced by human thought;
The dreary regions of the dead,
Where all things are forgot!
2 Soon as from earth I go,
What will become of me?
Eternal happiness or wo

Must then my portion be:
Waked by the trumpet's sound,
I from my grave shall rise,
And see the Judge, with glory crown'd,
And see the flaming skies!

3 How shall I leave my tomb-
With triumph or regret?
A fearful or a joyful doom,
A curse or blessing, meet?
Will angel bands convey

Their brother to the bar?
Or devils drag my soul away,

To meet its sentence there?

4 Who can resolve the doubt

That tears my anxious breast?
Shall I be with the damn'd cast out,

Or number'd with the blest?

I must from God be driven,

Or with my Saviour dwell;

Must come at his command to heaven,
Or else depart to hell!