God incomprehensible. Job xxvi.
1 CAN creatures to perfection find
The eternal uncreated mind?
Or, can the largest stretch of thought
Measure and search his nature out?
2 'Tis high as heaven, 'tis deep as hell ;
And what can mortals know or tell?
His glory spreads beyond the sky,
And all the shining worlds on high.
3 He frowns, and darkness veils the moon;
The fainting sun grows dim at noon;
The pillars of heaven's starry roof
Tremble and start at his reproof.
4 These are a portion of his ways!
But who shall utter all his praise?
Who can endure his light, or stand
To hear the thunders of his hand? ·
1 COME, let us search our ways, and try, Have they been just and right?
Is the great rule of equity
Our practice and delight?
2 What we would have our neighbour do, Have we still done the same?
From others ne'er withheld the due,
Which we from others claim?
3 Have we ne'er envied others' good,
Ne'er envied others' praise?
In no man's path malignant stood,
Nor used detraction's ways?
4 Have we not, deaf to his request,
Turned from another's wo?
The scorn which wrings the sufferer's breast, Have we abhorred to show?
5 Then may we raise our humble prayer
To God, the just and kind;
May thankful cast on him our care,
And hope his grace to find.
6 Religion's path they never trod,
Who equity contemn:
Nor ever are they just to God, prove unjust to men.
Christ's Invitation to Sinners. Mat. xi. 28-30.
1 COME unto me, all ye who mourn,
With guilt and fears oppressed;
Resign to me the willing heart,
And I will give you rest.
2 Take up my yoke, and learn of me
A meek and lowly mind;
And thus your weary troubled souls
Repose and peace shall find.
3 For light and gentle is my yoke;
The burden I impose
Shall ease the heart which groaned before, Beneath a load of woes.
Christ's Invitations. Mat. xi. 28.
1 COME! said Jesus' sacred voice,
Come, and make my paths your choice:
I will guide you to your home;
Weary pilgrim, hither come!
2 Thou, who houseless, sole, forlorn,
Long hast borne the proud world's scorn,
Long hast roamed the barren waste,
Weary pilgrim, hither haste!
3 Ye, who tossed on beds of pain,
Seek for ease, but seek in vain :
Ye, whose swoln and sleepless eyes
Watch to see the morning rise:
4 Ye, by fiercer anguish torn,
In remorse for guilt who mourn,
Here repose your heavy care:
Who the stings of guilt can bear!
5 Sinner, come! for here is found
Balm that flows for every wound;
Peace that ever shall endure,
Rest eternal, sacred, sure.
"Blessed are they that mourn."
1 DEEM not that they are blessed alone,
Whose days a peaceful tenor keep;
The God, who loves our race, has shown
A blessing for the eyes that weep.
2 The light of smiles shall fill again
The lids that overflow with tears,
And weary hours of wo and pain
Are earnests of serener years.
3 O there are days of sunny rest
For every dark and troubled night!
And grief may bide, an evening guest,
But joy shall come with early light.
4 And thou, who o'er thy friend's low bier,
Sheddest the bitter drops like rain,
Hope that a brighter, happier sphere,
Will give him to thy arms again.
5 Nor let the good man's trust depart,
Though life its common gifts deny;
Though with a pierced and broken heart,
And spurned of men, he goes to die.
6. For God hath marked each anguished day,
And numbered every secret tear;
And heaven's long age of bliss shall pay
For all his children suffer here.
Faith in the invisible God. Heb. xi. 27.
1 ETERNAL and immortal king!
Thy peerless splendours none can bear;
But darkness veils seraphic eyes,
When God with all his glory's there.
2 Yet faith can pierce the awful gloom,
The great Invisible can see;
And with its tremblings mingle joy,
In fixed regards, great God! on thee.
3 Then every tempting form of sin,
Awed by thy presence, disappears;
And all the glowing raptured soul
The likeness it contemplates, wears.
4 This one petition would it urge—
To bear thee ever in its sight;
In life, in death, in worlds unknown,
Its only portion and delight!
Life, Death, and Resurrection.
1 ETERNAL God, how frail is man! Few are the hours, and short the
span,
Between the cradle and the grave:
Who can prolong his vital breath?
Who from the bold demands of death
Hath skill to fly, or power to save?
2 But let no murmuring heart complain,
That, therefore, man is made in vain,
Nor the Creator's grace distrust;
For though his servants, day by day,
Go to their graves, and turn to clay,
A bright reward awaits the just.
3 Jesus hath made thy purpose known,
A new and better life hath shown,
And we the glorious tidings hear:
For ever blessed be the Lord,
That we can read his holy word,
And find a resurrection there.
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