1066

L. M.

A peaceful death expected, and prayed for.

HRINKING from the cold hand of death,

SHI soon shall gather up my feet;

Shall soon resign this fleeting breath,
And die, my fathers' God to meet.

2 Number'd among thy people, I
Expect with joy thy face to see:
Because thou didst for sinners die,
Jesus, in death remember me!

3 0 that, without a ling'ring groan,
I may the welcome word receive;
My body with my charge lay down,
And cease at once to work and live.

4 Walk with me through the dreadful shade, And, certified that thou art mine,

My spirit, calm and undismay'd,

I shall into thy hands resign.

5 No anxious doubt, no guilty gloom,
Shall damp whom Jesus' presence cheers.
My Light, my Life, my God is come,
And glory in his face appears.

1067

I am going the way of all the earth.

PASS

L. M.

ASS a few swiftly fleeting years,
And all that now in bodies live
Shall quit, like me, the vale of tears,
Their righteous sentence to receive.

2 But all, before they hence remove,
May mansions for themselves prepare
In that eternal house above;

And, O my God, shall I be there?

1068

A

Solemn thoughts on the future.

ND am I born to die?

To lay this body down?

S. M.

And must my trembling spirit fly
Into a world unknown ?-
A land of deepest shade,

Unpierced by human thought;
The dreary regions of the dead,
Where all things are forgot!
2 Soon as from earth I go,
What will become of me?
Eternal happiness or wo

Must then my portion be:
Waked by the trumpet's sound,
I from my grave shall rise,
And see the Judge, with glory crown'd,
And see the flaming skies!

3 How shall I leave my tomb-
With triumph or regret?
A fearful or a joyful doom,
A curse or blessing, meet?
Will angel bands convey

Their brother to the bar?
Or devils drag my soul away,

To meet its sentence there?

4 Who can resolve the doubt

That tears my anxious breast? Shall I be with the damn'd cast out,

Or number'd with the blest?

I must from God be driven,

Or with my Saviour dwell;

Must come at his command to heaven, Or else depart to hell!

1069

A voice from the grave.

C. M.

HARK

ARK! from the tombs a doleful sound; My ears, attend the cry:Ye living men, come view the ground Where you must shortly lie.

2 Princes, this clay must be your bed,
In spite of all your towers;

The tall, the wise, the reverend head,
Shall lie as low as ours.

3 Great God! is this our certain doom,
And are we still secure?

Still walking downward to the tomb,
And yet prepared no more?

4 Grant us the power of quick'ning grace,
To fit our souls to fly;

Then, when we drop this dying flesh,
We'll rise above the sky.

1070

WHY

Christ's presence makes death easy.

L. M.

WHY should we start, and fear to die?
What tim'rous worms we mortals are!

Death is the gate to endless joy,

And yet we dread to enter there.

2 The pains, the groans, the dying strife, Fright our approaching souls away; And we shrink back again to life,

Fond of our prison and our clay. 30 would my Lord his servant meet,

My soul would stretch her wings in haste,

Fly fearless through death's iron gate,
Nor feel the terrors as she pass'd.

4 Jesus can make a dying bed

Feel soft as downy pillows are, While on his breast I lean my head,

And breathe my life out sweetly there.

1071

C. M.

Death of children.

HY life I read, my gracious Lord,
With transport all divine;

Thine image trace in every word,
Thy love in every line.

2 Methinks I see a thousand charms
Spread o'er thy lovely face,
While infants in thy tender arms
Receive the smiling grace.

3 I take these little lambs, said he,
And lay them in my breast;
Protection they shall find in me,
In me be ever blest.

4 Death may the bands of life unloose,
But can't dissolve my love;
Millions of infant souls compose

The family above.

5 His words the happy parents hear,
And shout, with joys divine,-

O Saviour, all we have and are
Shall be forever thine.

1072

4th P. M. 886, 886.

The momentous question.

ND am I only born to die?

And must I suddenly comply

With nature's stern decree?
What after death for me remains?
Celestial joys, or hellish pains,
To all eternity.

2 How then ought I on earth to live,
While God prolongs the kind reprieve,
And props the house of clay?
My sole concern, my single care,
To watch, and tremble, and prepare
Against that fatal day.

3 No room for mirth or trifling here,
For worldly hope, or worldly fear,
If life so soon is gone;

If now the Judge is at the door,
And all mankind must stand before
The' inexorable throne!

4 No matter which my thoughts employ,
A moment's misery or joy;

But, O! when both shall end,
Where shall I find my destined place?
Shall I my everlasting days

With fiends or angels spend?

5 Nothing is worth a thought beneath,
But how I may escape the death
That never, never dies!

How make mine own election sure;
And when I fail on earth, secure
A mansion in the skies.

6 Jesus, vouchsafe a pitying ray;
Be thou my Guide, be thou my Way
To glorious happiness.

Ah! write the pardon on my heart;
And whensoe'er I hence depart,

Let me depart in peace.

1073

10th P. M. 8 lines 8s.

The grave disarmed of its terrors.

AN dieth and wasteth away,

and

And where is he?-Hark! from the skies,

I hear a voice answer and say,

The spirit of man never dies!
His body, which came from the earth,
Must mingle again with the sod;
His soul, which in heaven had birth,
Returns to the bosom of God.