Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

PRAISE to God, the great Creator,
Bounteous source of all our joy;
He whose hand upholds all nature,
He whose nod can all destroy:
Saints, with pious zeal attending,
Now the grateful tribute raise;
Solemn songs to heaven ascending
Join the universal praise.

2.

Round his awful footstool kneeling,
Lowly bend with contrite souls;
Here, his milder grace revealing,
Here, his wrath no thunder rolls:
Lo! the eternal page before us
Bears the covenant of his love;
Full of mercy to restore us,
Mercy beaming from above.

3.

Every secret fault confessing,

Deed unrighteous, thought of sin, Seize, O seize the proffer'd blessing, Grace from God, and peace within: Heart and voice with rapture swelling, Still the song of glory raise: On the theme immortal dwelling, Join the universal praise.

[blocks in formation]

THE Lord my pasture shall prepare,
And feed me with a shepherd's care;
His presence shall my wants supply,
And guard me with a watchful eye;
My noon-day walks he shall attend,
And all my midnight hours defend.

2.

When in the sultry glebe I faint,
Or on the thirsty mountain pant;
To fertile vales and dewy meads
My weary wandering steps he leads;
Where peaceful rivers, soft and slow,
Amid the verdant landscape flow.

3.

Though in the paths of death I tread,
With gloomy horrors overspread,
My steadfast heart shall fear no ill,
For thou, O Lord, art with me still;
Thy friendly crook shall give me aid,
And guide me through the dreadful shade.

4.

Though in a bare and rugged way
Through devious, lonely wilds I stray,
Thy bounty shall my pains beguile;
The barren wilderness shall smile,
With sudden greens and herbage crown'd,
And streams shall murmur all around.

91. C. M.

HEGINBOTHAM.

Praise to God in life and death.

1.

My soul shall praise thee, O my God,
Through all my mortal days,
And to eternity prolong

Thy vast, thy boundless praise.

2.

In every smiling happy hour
Be this my sweet employ:
Thy praise refines my earthly bliss,
And heightens all my joy.

3.

When gloomy care and keen distress.
Afflict my throbbing breast,

My tongue shall learn to speak thy praise,
And lull each pain to rest.

4.

Nor shall my tongue alone proclaim

The honours of my

God:

My life with all its active powers
Shall spread thy praise abroad.

5.

And when these lips shall cease to move,
When death shall close these eyes,
Then shall my soul to nobler heights
Of joy and transport rise.

6.

Then shall her powers in endless strains
Their grateful tribute pay:

The theme demands an angel's tongue,
And an eternal day.

92. c. M.

HEGINBOTHAM.

Praise to God through all the changes of life.

1.

FATHER of mercies! God of love!
My Father and my God!
I'll sing the honours of thy name,
And spread thy praise abroad.

2.

My soul, in pleasing wonder lost,
Thy various love surveys:
Where shall my grateful lips begin,
Or where conclude thy praise?

3.

In every period of my life

Thy kindest thoughts appear;
Thy mercies gild each transient scene,
And crown each circling year.

4.

In all these mercies may my soul
A father's bounty see!

Nor let the gifts thy grace bestows
Estrange my heart from thee.

5.

In every varying mortal state,
Each bright, each gloomy scene,
Give me a meek and humble mind,
Still equal and serene.

6.

Then could I close mine eyes in death
Without one anxious fear;

For death itself is life, my God!

If thou art with me there.

93. c. M.

MRS. STEELE.

Praise to the guardian of infancy and age.

1.

ALMIGHTY Father, gracious Lord,
Kind guardian of my days,
Thy mercies let my heart record
In songs of grateful praise.

2.

In life's first dawn my tender frame
Was thy indulgent care,

Long ere I could pronounce thy name,
Or breathe the infant

3.

prayer.

Each rolling year new favours brought
From thine exhaustless store:
But ah! in vain my labouring thought
Would count thy mercies o'er.

4.

While sweet reflection through my days Thy bounteous hand would trace, Still dearer blessings claim my praise, The blessings of thy grace.

5.

Our frail mortality in vain
Attempts the blissful song;

The high, the vast, the boundless strain
Claims an immortal tongue.

6.

Lord, when this mortal frame decays,
And every weakness dies,

Complete the wonders of thy grace,
And raise me to the skies.

« PreviousContinue »