3 With grateful hearts the past we own,
The future, all to us unknown,
To thee commit in humble prayer,
And banish every anxious care.
4 In scenes exalted or depressed,
Thou art our joy, and thou our rest,
Thy goodness all our hopes shall raise,
Unchang'd through all our changing days.
5 When death shall interrupt these songs,
And seal in silence mortal tongues,
In better worlds our souls shall boast,
Our helper, God, our joy, our trust.
Humility implored by the Young.
1 GREAT Lord of all things, Power divine!
Breathe on this erring heart of mine
Thy grace serene and pure:
Defend my frail, my feeble youth;
And teach me this important truth,
The humble are secure.
2 Yon tower, which lifts its head so high,
And bids defiance to the sky,
Invites the hostile winds;
Yon branching oak, extending wide,
Provokes destruction by its pride,
And courts the fall it finds.
3 Then let me shun the ambitious deed,
And all the dangerous paths which lead,
To honours falsely won:
Lord! in thy sure protection blessed
Submissive will I ever rest;
And may thy will be done!
† Liverpool (Renshaw st.) Coll.
At the Settlement, or Ordination of a Minister. Zech. iii. 6, 7.
1 GREAT Lord of angels! we adore
The grace that builds thy courts below;
And mid ten thousand sons of light,
Stoops to regard what mortals do.
2 Amid the wastes of time and death
Successive pastors thou dost raise,
Thy kingdom and thy truth to spread,
And form a people for thy praise.
3. At length, dismissed from labouring here,
Thy servants join the angelic band;
With them, through distant worlds they fly,
With them before thy presence stand:
4 O bless'd employment! glorious hope!
Sweet lenitive of grief and care!
When shall we reach those radiant courts,
And all their joys and honours share?
5 Yet while these labours we pursue,
Though distant from thy heavenly throne,
Give us a zeal and love like theirs,
And half their heaven shall here be known.
Praise for National Peace.
1 GREAT Ruler of the earth and skies!
A word of thine almighty breath
Can sink the world, or bid it rise:
Thy smile is life, thy frown is death.
2 When angry nations rush to arms,
And rage, and noise, and tumult reign,
And war resounds its dire alarms,
And slaughter dyes the hostile plain :
3 Thy sovereign eye looks calmly down,
And marks their course, and bounds their power;
Thy law the angry nations own,
And noise and war are heard no more.
4 Then peace returns with balmy wings,
Reviving commerce spreads her sails;
The fields are green, and plenty sings
Responsive o'er the hills and vales.
5 Thou good and wise and righteous Lord,
All move subservient to thy will;
Both peace and war await thy word,
And thy sublime decrees fulfil.
6 To thee we pay our grateful songs,
Thy kind protection still implore;
O may our hearts, and lives, and tongues,
Confess thy goodness, and adore!
Grateful Acknowledgment of God's constant Goodness.
1 GREAT Source of unexhausted good!
Who giv'st us health, and friends, and food,
And peace, and calm content;
Like fragrant incense, to the skies,
Let songs of grateful praises rise,
For all thy blessings lent.
2 Through all the dangers of the day,
Thy providence attends our way,
To guard us and to guide;
Thy grace directs our wandering will,
And warns us lest seducing ill
Allure our souls aside.
3 Thy smiles, with a reviving light,
Cheer the long darksome hours of night,
And gild the thickest gloom;
Thy watchful love, around our bed,
Doth softly like a curtain spread,
And guard the peaceful room.
4 To thee our lives, our all we owe,
Our peace and sweetest joys below,
And brighter hopes above;
Then let our lives, and all that's ours,
Our souls, and all our active powers,
Be sacred to thy love.
5 Thus, gracious Father! thee we praise;
And while our feeble songs we raise
To bless thee and adore,
Some spark of heavenly fire impart,
And teach each humble, grateful heart,
To bless and love thee more.
Advantages of early Religion.
1 HAPPY is he whose early years
Receive instruction well;
Who hates the sinner's path, and fears
The road that leads to hell.
2 For youth devoted to the Lord,
Is pleasing in his eyes;
A flower, when offered in the bud,
Is no vain sacrifice.
3 'Tis easier work, if we begin
To fear the Lord betimes;
While sinners, who grow old in sin,
Are hardened by their crimes.
4 It saves us from a thousand snares
To mind religion young;
With joy it crowns succeeding years,
And makes our virtue strong.
5 To thee, Almighty God!
Our hearts we now resign:
'Twill please us to look back and see
That our whole lives were thine.
6 O may the work of prayer and praise,
Employ our daily breath!
Thus we're prepared for future days,
Or fit for early death.
440. с. м.
Hymn for a Sunday School.
HEAR, Lord! the song of praise and prayer,
In heaven thy dwelling-place,
From infants made the public care
And taught to seek thy face!
2 Thanks for thy word and for thy day;
And grant us, we implore,
Never to waste in sinful play
Thy holy sabbaths more.
3 Thanks that we hear-but O impart
To each, desires sincere,
That we may listen with our heart,
And learn as well as hear!
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