3 What sweetness does the promise yield, When by the Spirit's power seal'd? The longing soul is fill'd with good, Nor feels a wish for other food.
4 By these inviting tastes allur'd, We pass to what must be endur'd; For soon we find it is decreed,
That bitter must to sweet succeed. 5 When sin revives and shows its pow'r, When Satan threatens to devour, When God afflicts, and men revile, We draw our steps with pain and toil. 6 When thus deserted, tempest-tost, The sense of former sweetness lost, We tremble lest we were deceiv'd In thinking that we once believ'd.
7 The Lord first makes the sweetness known, To win and fix us for his own;
And though we now some bitter meet, We hope for everlasting sweet.
III. PROVIDENCES.
II. ORDINANCES. IV. CREATION.
1 WHILE with ceaseless course the sun
Hasted through the former year, Many souls their race have run, Never more to meet us here: Fix'd in an eternal state,
They have done with all below; We a little longer wait,
But how little-none can know.
2 As the winged arrow flies, Speedily the mark to find; As the lightning from the skies Darts, and leaves no trace behind; Swiftly thus our fleeting days
Bear us down life's rapid stream; Upwards, Lord, our spirits raise,
All below is but a dream.
3 Thanks for mercies past receive, Pardon of our sins renew;
Teach us, henceforth, how to live With eternity in view :
Bless thy word to young and old, Fill us with a Saviour's love; And when life's short tale is told, May we dwell with thee above.
1 TIME, with an unwearied hand, Pushes round the seasons past; And in life's frail glass the sand Sinks apace, not long to last : Many, who, as you and I, The last year assembled thus, In their silent graves now lie; Graves will open soon for us!
2 Daily sin, and care, and strife, While the Lord prolongs our breath, Make it but a dying life,
Or a kind of living death: Wretched they and most forlorn, Who no better portion know; Better ne'er to have been born, Than to have our all below.
3 When constrain'd to go alone, Leaving all you love behind, Ent'ring on a world unknown, What will then support your mind?
When the Lord his summons sends, Earthly comforts lose their pow'r; Honour, riches, kindred, friends, Cannot cheer a dying hour.
4 Happy souls who fear the Lord! Time is not too swift for you; When your Saviour gives the word, Glad you'll bid the world adieu : Then he'll wipe away your tears, Near himself appoint your place; Swifter fly, ye rolling years, Lord, we long to see thy face.
III. Uncertainty of Life.
1 See! another year is gone!
Quickly have the seasons pass'd!
This we enter now upon May to many prove their last : Mercy hitherto has spar'd, But have mercies been improv'd? Let us ask, Am I prepar'd, Should I be this year remov'd?
2 Some we now no longer see, Who their mortal race have run, Seem'd as fair for life as we, When the former year begun: Some, but who God only knows, Who are here assembled now, Ere the present year shall close, To the stroke of death must bow.
3 Life a field of battle is,
Thousands fall within our view; And the next death-bolt that flies, May be sent to me or you :
While we preach, and while we hear, Help us, Lord, each one to think, Vast eternity is near,
I am standing on the brink.
4 If from guilt and sin set free, By the knowledge of thy grace, Welcome, then, the call will be To depart and see thy face: To thy saints, while here below, With new years new mercies come; But the happiest year they know Is their last, which leads them home.
IV. A New-Year's Thought and Prayer. 1 TIME, by moments, steals away, First the hour and then the day; Small the daily loss appears, Yet it soon amounts to years: Thus another year is flown, Now it is no more our own, If it brought or promis'd good, Than the years before the flood.
2 But (may none of us forget) It has left us much in debt; Favours from the Lord receiv'd, Sins that have his Spirit griev'd, Mark'd by an unerring hand, In his book recorded stand; Who can tell the vast amount, Plac'd to each of our account?
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