Wilt thou release my trembling soul,
That to despair is driven?
'Forgive!' a blessed voice replied,
And thou shalt be forgiven!'
2 My foemen, Lord, are fierce and fell,
They spurn me in their pride,
They render evil for my good,
My patience they deride;
Arise, O King, and be the proud
To righteous ruin driven !
'Forgive!' an awful answer came,
'As thou wouldst be forgiven!'
3 Seven times, O Lord, I pardoned them,
Seven times they sinned again ;
They practise still to work me woe,
They triumph in my pain;
But let them dread my vengeance now,
To just resentment driven !
'Forgive!' the voice of thunder spake,
'Or be not thou forgiven!'
'Why stand ye idle here?'
1 THE God of glory walks his round,
From day to day, from year to year;
And warns us each, with awful sound,
'No longer stand ye idle here!
2 Ye whose young cheeks are rosy-bright,
Whose hands are strong, whose hearts are clear
Waste not of hope the morning light!
Ah, fools, why stand ye idle here?
3 O, if the griefs ye would assuage That wait on life's declining year,— Secure a blessing for your age,
And work your Maker's business here!
4 'And ye, whose locks of scanty gray Foretell latest travail near,
How swiftly fades your worthless day!
And stand ye yet so idle here?'
5 0 thou, by all thy works adored,
To whom the sinner's soul is dear,
Recall us to thy vineyard, Lord,
And grant us grace to please thee here!
1 COME, fellow-sinners, come away;
Behold the fast-declining sun;
No longer in the market stay;
'Tis time our labors were begun.
2 O be not faithless in the Lord:
Whate'er is right we shall receive;
If we but hearken to his word,
He will immortal treasures give.
3 Lord, in thy vineyard we appear,
To labor in the works of love;
O may we be thy mercy's care,
Nor from thy precepts ever rove.
4 And when thy laborers all come home,
May each, with joy, thy goodness see;
Nor fault what boundless grace has done,
In setting man from bondage free.
God appearing in terrible Judgments.
1 THE mighty God from Teman came-
The Holy One from Paran hill;
His glory shone through heaven in flame,
And all the earth his name did fill.
2 Before his feet,-a baleful light,
The pestilence went forth in wrath:-
The nations sickened at the sight,
And their hosts perished from its path.
3 He stood, and as his eye surveyed
The quaking earth and heaving main,
The hills bowed down, the mountains fled,
The streams rolled backward through the plain;
4 Th' o'erflowing deep, by thunder riven,
Came rushing where the land had been;
The sun and moon stood still in heaven,
And turned to sackcloth o'er the scene.
5 I saw, and terror struck me dumb;
My joints dissolved, my senses froze;
I saw the God of judgment come
To cheer his saints, and crush their foes.
1 FALLEN is thy throne, O Israel!
Silence is o'er thy plains;
Thy dwellings all lie desolate,-
Thy children weep in chains!
Where are the dews that fed thee
On Elim's barren shore ?-
That fire from heaven, which led thee,
Now lights thy path no more.
2 Lord, thou didst love Jerusalem,--
Once, she was all thine own;
Her love thy fairest heritage,-
Her power, thy glory's throne;
Till evil came, and blighted
Thy long-loved olive-tree,
And Salem's shrines were lighted
To other gods than thee.
3 Then sunk the star of Solyma;
Then passed her glory's ray,
Like heath, that in the wilderness
The wild wind whirls away.
Silent and waste her bowers,
Where once the mighty trod;
And sunk those guilty towers
Where Baal reigned as god.
1 Daughter of Zion, from the dust Exalt thy fallen head;
Again in thy Redeemer trust,
He calls thee from the dead,
2 Awake, awake! put on thy strength. Thy beautiful array;
The day of freedom dawns at length,
The Lord's appointed day.
3 Rebuild thy walls, thy bounds enlarge,
And send thy heralds forth;
Say to the south, 'Give up thy charge,
And keep not back, O north!'
4 They come, they come ;-thine exiled bands, Where'er they rest or roam,
Have heard thy voice in distant lands,
And hasten to their home.
1 O, WHO shall see the glorious day,
When, throned on Zion's brow,
The Lord shall rend the veil away
That hides the nations now!
When earth no more beneath the fear
Of his rebuke shall lie,
When pain shall cease, and every tear
Be wiped from every eye!
2 Then, Judah, thou no more shalt mourn
Beneath the heathen's chain;
Thy days of splendor shall return,
And all be new again.
The fount of life shall then be quaffed
In peace by all who come;
And every wind that blows, shall waft
Some long-lost exile home.
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