436.

L. M.

J. TAYLOR.

True Length of Life.

1 LIKE shadows gliding o'er the plain, Or clouds that roll successive on, Man's busy generations pass,

And while we gaze, their forms are gone.

2 "He lived, he died;" behold the sum, The abstract of the historian's page! Alike in God's all-seeing eye,

The infant's day, the patriarch's age.
3 O Father! in whose mighty hand
The boundless years and ages lie,
Teach us thy boon of life to prize,
And use the moments as they fly;

4 To crowd the narrow span of life
With wise designs and virtuous deeds;
So shall we wake from death's dark night,
To share the glory that succeeds.

We are Pilgrims on the Earth. Ps. 39.

10 LET me, heavenly Lord, extend
My view to life's approaching end!
What are my days? a span their line;
And what my age compared with thine?

2 Our life advancing to its close,

While scarce its earliest dawn it knows,
Swift through an empty shade we run,
And vanity and man are one.

3 O, how thy chastisements impair
The human form, however fair!
How frail the strongest frame we see,
If thou its mortal doom decree!

4 As when the fretting moths consume
The labor of the curious loom,
The texture fails, the dyes decay,
And all its lustre fades away.

5 God of my fathers! here, as they,
I walk the pilgrim of a day;

A transient guest, thy works admire,
And instant to my home retire.

6 O spare me, Lord, awhile, O spare,
And nature's failing strength repair,
Ere, life's short circuit wandered o'er,
I perish, and am seen no more.

438. L. M. SPIRIT OF THE PSALMS. Numbering our Days. Ps. 39.

1 THE term of life assigned to man
Is transient as a passing shade;
Its longest period is a span,
And in the bud his honors fade.

2 He walks but in an empty show,
Vexed and disquieted in vain :

To unknown heirs his wealth must flow, And he to dust return again.

3 So let us number, then, our days,

That we may know how frail we are;
Call to remembrance all our ways,
And for eternity prepare.

439.

C. M.

H. K. WHITE.

Journeying through Death to Life.

1 THROUGH Sorrow's night, and danger's path,
Amid the deepening gloom,
We, soldiers of a heavenly King,
Are marching to the tomb.

2 There, when the turmoil is no more,
And all our powers decay,
Our cold remains in solitude
Shall sleep the years away.

3 Our labors done, securely laid
In this our last retreat,
Unheeded, o'er our silent dust

The storms of life shall beat.

4 Yet not thus lifeless, thus inane, The vital spark shall lie;

For o'er life's wreck that spark shall rise, To seek its kindred sky.

440. S. M.

DODDRIDGE.

Uncertainty of Life.

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;
O make thy servants truly wise,
That they may live to-day.

3 One thing demands our care;
O be it still pursued!

Lest, slighted once, the season fair
Should never be renewed.

4 To Jesus may we fly

Swift as the morning light,

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

441.

C. M.

MONTGOMERY.

Heaven and Earth.

1 WHILE through this changing world we roam, From infancy to age,

Heaven is the Christian pilgrim's home,
His rest at every stage.

2 Thither his raptured thought ascends,
Eternal joys to share;

There his adoring spirit bends,
While here he kneels in prayer.

3 From earth his freed affections rise,
To fix on things above,
Where all his hope of glory lies,
And love is perfect love.

4 Ah! there may we our treasure place,
There let our hearts be found,
That still where sin abounded, grace
May more and more abound.

5 Henceforth our conversation be
With Christ before the throne:
Ere long we eye to eye shall see,
And know as we are known.

Protection, Victory, and Deliverance. Ps. 91.

1 YE sons of men, a feeble race,

Exposed to every snare,

Come, make the Lord your dwelling-place,
And try, and trust his care.

2 He'll give his angels charge to keep
Your feet in all their ways;
To watch your pillow while you sleep,
And guard your happy days.
3"Because on me they set their love,
I'll save them, saith the Lord;
I'll bear their joyful souls above
Destruction and the sword.

4 "My grace shall answer when they call;
In trouble I'll be nigh;

My power shall help them when they fall, And raise them when they die.

5 Those that on earth my name have known, I'll honor them in heaven;

There my salvation shall be shown,
And endless life be given."

443.

S. M.

DODDRIDGE.

Tracing the Steps of the pious Dead.

1 How swift the torrent rolls,

That bears us to the sea!

The tide that bears our thoughtless souls
To vast eternity!