The honour and safety of a nation.
REAT is the Lord
And let his praise be great;
He makes his churches his abode,
His most delightful seat.
2 These temples of his grace,
How beautiful they stand :-
The honours of our native place,
And bulwarks of our land.
3 In Zion God is known,
A refuge in distress;
How bright has his salvation shone
Through all her palaces!
4 In every new distress
We'll to his house repair; We'll think upon his wondrous grace, And seek deliv'rance there.
ORD of hosts! to thee we raise
Here a house of prayer and praise.
Thou thy people's hearts prepare,
Here to meet for praise and prayer.
2 Let the living here be fed
With thy word, the heavenly bread:
Here, in hope of glory blest,
May the dead be laid to rest.
3 Here to thee a temple stand,
While the sea shall gird the land:
Here reveal thy mercy sure,
While the sun and moon endure.
4 Hallelujah!-earth and sky
To the joyful sound reply:
Hallelujah! hence ascend
Prayer and praise till time shall end.
O GOD, though countless worlds of light
Thy power and glory show,-
Though round thy throne, above all height,
Immortal seraphs glow,-
2 Yet, Lord, where'er thy saints apart
Are met for praise and prayer, —
Wherever sighs a contrite heart,
Thou, gracious God, art there.
3 With grateful joy, thy children rear
This temple, Lord, to thee;
Long may they sing thy praises here,
And here thy beauty see.
4 Here, Saviour, deign thy saints to meet; With peace their hearts to fill ;
And here, like Sharon's odours sweet,
May grace divine distil.
5 Here may thy truth fresh triumphs win;
Eternal Spirit, here,
In many a heart now dead in sin,
A living temple rear.
TOT heaven's wide range of hallow'd space Jehovah's presence can confine;
Nor angels' claims restrain his grace,
Whose glories through creation shine. 2 It beam'd on Eden's guilty days, And traced redemption's wondrous plan; From Calvary, in brightest rays, It glow'd to guide benighted man. 3 Its sacred shrine it fixes there, Where two or three are met to raise Their holy hands in humble prayer, Or tune their hearts to grateful praise.
4 Be this, O Lord, that honour'd place, -
The house of God, the gate of heaven;
And may the fulness of thy grace
To all who here shall meet be given.
5 And hence, in spirit, may we soar
To those bright courts where seraphs bend;
With awe like theirs, on earth adore,
Till with their anthems ours shall blend.
ND will the great eternal God
On earth establish his abode?
And will he, from his radiant throne,
Accept our temples for his own?
2 These walls we to thy honour raise;
Long may they echo with thy praise:
And thou, descending, fill the place
With choicest tokens of thy grace.
3 Here let the great Redeemer reign,
With all the graces of his train;
While power divine his word attends,
To conquer foes, and cheer his friends.
4 And in the great decisive day,
When God the nations shall survey,
May it before the world appear
That crowds were born to glory here.
An humble offering to Jehovah.
THE perfect world, by Adam trod, Was the first temple built by God; His fiat laid the corner-stone;
He spake, and lo! the work was done.
2 He hung its starry roof on high,
The broad expanse of azure sky;
He spread its pavement, green and bright,
And curtain'd it with morning light.
3 The mountains in their places stood,
The sea, the sky; and all was good;
And when its first pure praises rang,
The morning stars together sang.
4 Lord, 'tis not ours to make the sea,
And earth, and sky, a house for thee;
But in thy sight our off'ring stands,
An humble temple built with hands.
9th P. M. 87, 87, 87, 81.
For the dedication of a seamen's Bethel.
HOU, who on the whirlwind ridest,
At whose word the thunder roars,
Who in majesty presidest
O'er the oceans and their shores;
From those shores, and from the ocean,
We, the children of the sea,
Come to offer our devotion,
And to give this house to thee.
2 When, for business on great waters,
We go down to sea in ships,
And our weeping sons and daughters
Hang, at parting, on our lips;
This our Bethel shall remind us
That Jehovah heareth prayer;
And that those we leave behind us
Are thy faithful church's care.
3 When in port, each day that's holy
To this house we'll press in throngs;
When at sea, with spirit lowly,
We'll repeat its sacred songs.
Outward bound, shall we, in sadness,
Lose its flag behind the seas;
Homeward bound, we'll greet with gladness
Its first floating on the breeze.
1 Homeward bound! - with deep emotion, We remember, Lord, that life
Is a voyage o'er an ocean
Heaved by many a tempest's strife.
Be thy statutes so engraven
On our hearts and minds, that we,
Anchoring in death's quiet haven,
All may make our home with thee.
Souls perishing for lack of knowledge.
SHEPHERD
of souls, with pitying eye
The thousands of our Israel see; To thee in their behalf we cry, Ourselves but newly found in thee. 2 See where o'er desert wastes they err, And neither food nor feeder have, Nor fold, nor place of refuge near,
For no man cares their souls to save.
3 Thy people, Lord, are sold for naught,
Nor know they their Redeemer nigh;
They perish, whom thyself hast bought;
Their souls for lack of knowledge die.
4 The pit its mouth hath open'd wide,
To swallow up its careless prey:
Why should they die, when thou hast died-
Hast died to bear their sins away?
5 Why should the foe thy purchase seize ?
Remember, Lord, thy dying groans:
The meed of all thy suff'rings these;
O claim them for thy ransom'd ones!
|