Comfort in sickness and death. 1 WHEN sickness shakes the languid frame, Each dazzling pleasure flies; Phantoms of bliss no more obscure Our long deluded eyes.
2 Then the tremendous arm of death
Its fatal sceptre shews;
And nature faints beneath the weight
Of complicated woes.
3 The tott'ring frame of mortal life
Shall crumble into dust;
Nature shall faint-but learn, my soul,
On nature's God to trust.
The man, whose pious heart is fix'd
On his all-gracious God,
From ev'ry frown may draw a joy,
And kiss the chast'ning rod.
5 Nor him shall death itself alarm;
On heav'n his soul relies ;
With joy he views his Maker's love,
And with composure dies.
HYMN CXLIII.
The hope of future blessedness.
COME, ye who love the Lord,
And let your joys be known;
Join in a song of sweet accord,
While ye surround his throne.
2 Let those refuse to sing,
Who never knew our God;
But servants of the heavenly King
May speak their joys abroad.
3 The men of grace have found
Glory begun below
Celestial fruits on early ground
From faith and hope may grow.
4 Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We're marching through this present world
To fairer worlds on high.
HYMN CXLIV.
A view of futurity.
1 NOW let our souls, on wings sublime,
Rise from the vanities of time;
Draw back the parting veil, and see
The glories of eternity.
2 Born by a new, celestial birth,
Why should we grovel here on earth;
Why grasp at transitory toys,
So near to heaven's eternal joys?
> Shall ought beguil us on the road,
When we are walking back to God
For strangers into life we come,
And dying is but going home.
4 To dwell with God, to feel his love,
Is the full heaven enjoy'd above;
And the sweet expectation now
Is the young dawn of heaven below.
HYMN CXLV.
The prospect of heaven a support in death
1 THERE is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.
2 There everlasting spring abides,
And never-fading flowers;
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
This heavenly land from ours.
3 Sweet fields, beyond the swelling flood,
Stand dress'd in living green;
So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan roll'd between.
4 But fearful mortals start, and shrink,
To cross this narrow sea;
And linger, shiv'ring, on the brink,
And fear to launch away.
5 Oh! could we make our doubts remove,
These gloomy doubts that rise,
And see the Canaan that we love,
With unbeclouded eyes!
6 Could we but climb where Moses stood,
And view the landscape o'er-
Not Jordan's streams, or death's cold flood,
Should fright us from the shore.
HYMN CXLVI.
Behold the Lamb of God!
BEHOLD the Lamb of God!
The holy Baptist cries;
Whilst joy inspir'd his pious breast,
And sparkled in his eyes.
2 Let us behold the Lamb;
In him no guile we see ;
How patient, gentle, meek and mild !
From ev'ry error free.
See Jesus, like a lamb
Led to the sacrifice;
And silent as the sleep which dumb
Before his shearer lies.
Behold this spotless Lamb!
And mark the path he trod !
That blessed road will surely lead
To happiness and God.
HYMN CXLVII.
The promise is unto you and your children.
LORD, what our ears have heard,
Our eyes, delighted, trace;
Thy love, in long succession, shewn
To Sion's chosen race:
Our children dost thou claim,
And mark them out for thine!
Ten thousand blessings to thy name,
For goodness so divine!
Thee let the fathers own,
And thee the sons adore ;
Join'd to the Lord in solemn vows,
To be forgot no more :
Thy cov❜nant may they keep,
And bless the happy bands,
Which closer still engage their hearts
To honour thy commands.
3 How great thy mercies, Lord!
How plenteous is thy grace!
Which, in the premise of thy love,
Includes each rising race:
Our offspring, still thy care,
Shall own their fathers' God;
To latest time thy blessings share,
And sound thy praise abroad.
But weak our noblest praise,
For favours such as thine;
O how can tongues of feeble clay
Proclaim the love divine !
We wonder and adore!
And to exalt such grace,
We long to learn the songs of heaven,
Before we reach the place.
HYMN CXLVIII.
God the dwelling-place of his people throug all generations.
1 THOU, Lord, through ev'ry changing scene, Hast to thy flock a refuge been ;
Through ev'ry age, eternal God,
Their pleasing home, their safe abode.
2 In thee our fathers sought their rest,
In thee our fathers now are blest:
Lo, we are risen (a transient race)
A while to fill our fathers' place.
3 While travelling through life's varied road,
We lean upon our fathers' God;
On thee our steadfast hopes recline,
Ner own, nor ask, a help but thine.
4 To thee our infant race we give ;
Them may their fathers' God receive!
By sweet experience let them prove
Thy mercy, thine unchanging love.
5 Thus voices yet unform'd shall raise
A grateful tribute to thy praise;
Our children learn the joyful song,
And theirs the cheerful notes prolong.
6 Thou Saviour of the human race!
Thou Fountain of exhaustless grace!
Thy mercy ages past have known,
And ages long to come shall own.
7 So shall thy love, in strains sublime,
Be sung to the last hour of time :
Then shall eternity confess,
Through all its rounds, thy matchless grace.
HYMN CXLIX.
Family devotion.
1 FATHER of all! thy care we bless,
Which crowns our families with peace;
From thee they spring, and by thy hand
They have been, and are still sustain'd.
3 To God, most worthy to be prais❜d,
Be our domestick altars rais'd,
Who, Lord of heav'n, scorns not to dwell
With saints in their obscurest cell.
3 To thee may each united house
With joy present its grateful vows;
|