3 Thou great tremendous God,
The conscious awe impart;
The grace be now on me bestowed,
The tender, fleshly heart:
For Jesu's sake alone

The stony heart remove,

And melt at last, O melt me down
Into the mould of love!

2 Kings xxii. 19, 20.

FOR that tenderness of heart
Which bows before the Lord,
Acknowledging how just thou art,
And trembles at thy word!

C. M.

O for those humble, contrite tears
Which from repentance flow,
That consciousness of guilt which fears
The long-suspended blow!

2 Saviour, to me in pity give
The sensible distress,

The pledge thou wilt at last receive,
And bid me die in peace;

Wilt from the dreadful day remove,
Before the evil come;

My spirit hide with saints above,
My body in the tomb.

105

1

0

S. M.

THAT I could repent!
O that I could believe!

Thou by thy voice the marble rent,
The rock in sunder cleave!
Thou, by thy two-edged sword,
My soul and spirit part,

Strike with the hammer of thy word,
And break my stubborn heart!

2 Saviour, and Prince of peace,
The double grace bestow;
Unloose the bands of wickedness,
And let the captive go:

Grant me my sins to feel,
And then the load remove;
Wound, and pour in, my wounds to heal,
The balm of pardoning love.

3 For thy own mercy's sake
The cursed thing remove;
And into thy protection take
The prisoner of thy love:
In every trying hour

Stand by my feeble soul;
And screen me from my nature's power,
Till thou hast made me whole.

4 This is thy will, I know,
That I should holy be,

Should let my sin this moment go,
This moment turn to thee:
O might I now embrace

Thy all-sufficient power;

And never more to sin give place,
And never grieve thee more!

1

78 & 68 (1-8).

JESU, let thy pitying eye

Call back a wandering sheep!
False to thee, like Peter, I

Would fain, like Peter, weep:
Let me be by grace restored,
On me be all long-suffering shown;
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.

106

2 Saviour, Prince, enthroned above, Repentance to impart,

Give me, through thy dying love, The humble, contrite heart: Give what I have long implored, A portion of thy grief unknown; Turn, and look upon me, Lord,

And break my heart of stone.
3 See me, Saviour, from above,
Nor suffer me to die;
Life, and happiness, and love
Drop from thy gracious eye:
Speak the reconciling word,
And let thy mercy melt me down;
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.

4 Look, as when thine eye pursued
The first apostate man,
Saw him weltering in his blood,
And bade him rise again:
Speak my paradise restored,
Redeem me by thy grace alone;
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.

5 Look, as when thy pity saw

Thine own in a strange land, Forced to obey the tyrant's law, And feel his heavy hand: Speak the soul-redeeming word, And out of Egypt call thy son; Turn, and look upon me, Lord,

And break my heart of stone.

6 Look, as when thy grace beheld The harlot in distress,

1

Dried her tears, her pardon sealed,
And bade her go in peace:
Vile, like her, and self-abhorred,
I at thy feet for mercy groan;
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.

7 Look, as when thy languid eye
Was closed, that we might live;
Father," (at the point to die

66

My Saviour gasped) "forgive!"
Surely, with that dying word,

He turns, and looks, and cries, ""Tis done! "
O my bleeding, loving Lord,

L. M.

Thou break'st my heart of stone!

Isaiah Ixi. 1-3.

HE Spirit of the Lord our God

THE

*107

(Spirit of power, and health, and love) The Father hath on Christ bestowed, And sent him from his throne above;

2 Prophet, and Priest, and King of peace
Anointed to declare his will,

To minister his pardoning grace,
And every sin-sick soul to heal.

3 Sinners, obey the heavenly call;

Your prison-doors stand open wide; Go forth, for he hath ransomed all, For every soul of man hath died.

4 "Tis his the drooping soul to raise,
To rescue all by sin opprest,

To clothe them with the robes of praise,
And give their weary spirits rest;

5 To help their grovelling unbelief,
Beauty for ashes to confer,
The oil of joy for abject grief,
Triumphant joy for sad despair;

6 To make them trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord below,
To spread the honour of his grace,
And on to full perfection grow.

SECTION II.

FOR MOURNERS CONVINCED OF SIN.

108

C. M.

ENSLAV

1 INSLAVED to sense, to pleasure prone, Fond of created good,

Father, our helplessness we own,

And trembling taste our food.

2 Trembling we taste; for, ah! no more
To thee the creatures lead;
Changed, they exert a baneful power,
And poison while they feed.

3 Cursed for the sake of wretched man,
They now engross him whole;

With pleasing force on earth detain,
And sensualize his soul.

4 Grovelling on earth we still must lie,
Till Christ the curse repeal;

Till Christ, descending from on high,
Infected nature heal.

5 Come then, our heavenly Adam, come,
Thy healing influence give,

Hallow our food, reverse our doom,
And bid us eat and live!