THY life I read, my gracious Lord,
With transport all divine;
Thine image trace in every word,
Thy love in every line.
2 Methinks I see a thousand charms
Spread o'er thy lovely face,
While infants in thy tender arms
Receive the smiling grace.
3 I take these little lambs, said he,
And lay them in my breast;
Protection they shall find in me,
In me be ever blest.
4 Death may the bands of life unloose,
But can't dissolve my love;
Millions of infant souls compose
5 His words the happy parents hear,
And shout, with joys divine,-
O Saviour, all we have and are
Shall be forever thine.
4th P. M. 886, 886.
The momentous question.
ND am I only born to die!
And must I suddenly comply
With nature's stern decree!
What after death for me remains!
Celestial joys, or hellish pains,
To all eternity.
2 How then ought I on earth to live,
While God prolongs the kind reprieve,
And props the house of clay!
My sole concern, my single care,
To watch, and tremble, and prepare
Against that fatal day.
8 No room for mirth or trifling here,
For worldly hope, or worldly fear,
If life so soon is gone;
If now the Judge is at the door,
And all mankind must stand before
The' inexorable throne!
4 No matter which my thoughts employ,
A moment's misery or joy;
But, O! when both shall end,
Where sha! I find my destined place!
Shall I my everlasting days
With fiends or angels spend!
5 Nothing is worth a thought beneath,
But how I may escape the death
That never, never dies!
How make mine own election sure;
And when I fail on earth, secure
A mansion in the skies.
6 Jesus, vouchsafe a pitying ray;
Be thou my Guide, be thou my Way
To glorious happiness.
Ah! write the pardon on my heart;
And whensoe'er I hence depart,
Let me depart in peace.
The grave disarmed of its terrors.
MAN dieth and wasteth aw from the skies,
I hear a voice answer and say,
The spirit of man never dies!
His body, which came from the earth,
Must mingle again with the sod-
His soul, which in heaven had birth,
Returns to the bosom of God.
2 No terror has death, or the grave,
To those who believe in the LordWho know the Redeemer can save, And lean on the faith of his word: While ashes to ashes, and dust
We give unto dust, in our gloom,
The light of salvation we trust,
Which hangs like a lamp in the tomb.
3 O Lord God Almighty! to thee
We turn, as our solace above;
The waters may fail from the sea,
But never thy fountains of love:
O teach us thy will to obey,
And sing, with one heart and accord,
He gave, and he taketh away,
And praised be the name of the Lord.
Victory over the fears of death.
FOR an overcoming faith,
To cheer my dying hours,--
To triumph o'er approaching death,
And all his frightful powers.
2 Joyful, with all the strength I have,
My quiv'ring lips should sing,-
Where is thy boasted vict'ry, Grave!
And where, O Death, thy sting!
8 If sin be pardon'd, I'm secure;
Death has no sting beside:
The law gives sin its damning power,
But Christ, my ransom, died.
4 Now to the God of victory
Immortal thanks be paid,-
Who makes us conqu'rors, while we die, Through Christ, our living Head.
THE saints who die of Christ possess'd,
Enter into immediate rest;
For them no further test remains,
Of purging fires and torturing pains.
2 Who trusting in their Lord depart,
Cleansed from all sin, and pure in heart,
The bliss unmix'd, the glorious prize,
They find with Christ in paradise.
3 Yet, glorified by grace alone,
They cast their crowns before the throne,
And fill the echoing courts above
With praises of redeeming love.
The Christian's parting hour.
OW sweet the hour of closing day,
When all is peaceful and serene,
And when the sun, with cloudless ray,
Sheds mellow lustre o'er the scene!
2 Such is the Christian's parting hour;
So peacefully he sinks to rest;
When faith, endued from heaven with power,
Sustains and cheers his languid breast.
3 Mark but that radiance of his eye,
That smile upon his wasted cheek;
They tell us of his glory nigh,
In language that no tongue can speak.
4 A beam from heaven is sent to cheer
The pilgrim on his gloomy road;
And angels are attending near,
To bear him to their bright abode.
5 Who would not wish to die like those Whom God's own Spirit deigns to bless! To sink into that soft repose,
Then wake to perfect happiness!
Friends separated for a season.
RIEND after friend departs:
Who hath not lost a friend!
There is no union here of hearts.
That finds not here an end:
Were this frail world our only rest,
Living or dying, none were blest.
2 Beyond the flight of time,
Beyond this vale of death,
There surely is some blessed clime
Where life is not a breath,
Nor life's affection transient fire,
Whose sparks fly upward to expire.
3 There is a world above,
Where parting is unknown;
A whole eternity of love,
Form'd for the good alone:
And faith beholds the dying here
Translated to that happier sphere.
4 Thus star by star declines,
Till all are pass'd away,
As morning high and higher shines,
To pure and perfect day;
Nor sink those stars in empty night,
They hide themselves in heaven's own light
Blessedness of those who die in the Lord.
a voice divides the sky:
are the faithful deadl
In the Lord who sweetly die,
They from all their toils are freed;
Them the Spirit hath declared
Blest, unutterably blest;
Jesus is their great reward,
Jesus is their endless rest.
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