God forbid that I should Glory, save in the Gross.
2 O cross of anguish and of shame!
Thou didst a Saviour's grace declare:
Thou dost to all the world proclaim
The love that did my sorrows bear.
3 Cross of the Lord! no radiant gem,
No glistening pearls of lustre rare,
No monarch's blazing diadem
With thy pale splendors can compare.
4 Cross of the Lord! while others boast
Of titles, names, and marks of pride,
My heart shall ever glory most
In that rough tree where Jesus died.
5 O cross! thou badge of love divine,
Rend my hard heart, subdue my soul;
Oh, crush each lust and slay each sin,
And all my life by love control.
From all that dwell below the skies,
Let the Creator's praise arise;
Let the Redeemer's name be sung,
Through every land, by every tongue.
Eternal are thy mercies, Lord;
Eternal truth attends thy word;
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore,
Till suns shall rise and set no more.
I. Watts, 1719.
Do it with thy might. Eccl. ix. 10.
Life is the time to serve the Lord,
The time to insure the great reward;
And while the lamp holds out to burn,.
Let sinners to the Saviour turn.
Life is the hour that God has given,
To escape from hell, and fly to heaven;
The day of grace, and mortals may
Secure the blessings of the day.
The living know that they must die,
But all the dead forgotten lie;
Their memory and their sense is gone,
Alike unknowing and unknown.
Their hatred and their love is lost,
Their envy buried in the dust;
They have no share in all that's done
Beneath the circuit of the sun.
Then what my thoughts design to do,
My hands, with all your might pursue,
Since no device nor work is found,
Nor faith, nor hope, beneath the ground.
There are no acts of pardon passed
In the cold grave to which we haste;
But darkness, death, and long despair,
Reign in eternal silence there.
Who bare our Sins in His own Body.
71 Lord, remember me when thou comest.
Thou Man of griefs, remember me,
Who never canst thyself forget
Thy last mysterious agony,
Thy fainting pangs, and bloody sweat:
When, wrestling in the strength of prayer,
Thy spirit sunk beneath its load!
Thy feeble flesh abhorred to bear
The wrath of an Almighty God!
Father, if I may call thee so,
Regard my fearful heart's desire;
Remove this load of guilty woe,
Nor let me in my sins expire!
To thee my last distress I bring;
The heightened fear of death I find:
The tyrant, brandishing his sting,
Appears, and hell is close behind!
I deprecate that death alone,
That endless banishment from thee!
O save, and give me to thy Son,
Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Psalm li. 11.
Stay, thou insulted Spirit, stay,
Though I have done thee such despite;
Nor cast the sinner quite away,
Nor take thine everlasting flight.
Though I have steeled my stubborn heart,
And shaken off my guilty fears;
And vexed, and urged thee to depart,
For many long rebellious years:
Though I have most unfaithful been,
Of all who e'er thy grace received;
Ten thousand times thy goodness seen,
Ten thousand times thy goodness grieved:
Yet, O, the chief of sinners spare,
In honor of my great High Priest;
Nor in thy righteous anger swear
To exclude me from thy people's rest.
C. Wesley, ab.
He maketh the deaf to hear.
Mark vii, 87.
Lord, I was blind! I could not see
In thy marred visage any grace;
Who trembled, wept, and bled for me! But now the beauty of thy face
This do in remembrance of me.
Luke xxii. 19.
72
L. M.
'Twas on that dark, that doleful night,
When powers of hell and earth arose
Against the Son of God's delight,
And friends betrayed him to his foes:
Before the mournful scene began,
He took the bread, and blessed, and brake:
What love through all his actions ran!
What wondrous words of grace he spake!
"This is my body, broke for sin;
Receive and eat the living food: ”—
Then took the cup and blessed the wine,
'Tis the new covenant in my blood."
In radiant vision dawns on me.
Lord, I was deaf! I could not hear
The thrilling music of thy voice;
Rut now I hear thee and rejoice,
And all thy uttered words are dear.
Lord, I was dumb! I could not speak
The grace and glory of thy name;
But now, as touched with living flame,
My lips thine eager praises wake.
Lord, I was dead! I could not stir
My lifeless soul to come to thee;
But now, since thou hast quickened me,
I rise from sin's dark sepulchre.
For Thou hast made the blind to see,
The deaf to hear, the dumb to speak,
The dead to live, and lo, I break
The chains of my captivity.
2 From heaven angelic voices sound;
See the Almighty Jesus crowned!
Girt with omnipotence and grace,-
And glory decks the Saviour's face.
3 Descending on his radiant throne,
He claims the kingdom for his own;
The kingdoms all obey his word,
And hail him their triumphant Lord.
4 Shout, all the people of the sky!
And all the saints of the Most High:
Our Lord, who now his right obtains,
Forever and forever reigns.
Thou hast ascended on high.
Psalm 1xviii. 18.
78
Lord, when thou didst ascend on high,
Ten thousand angels filled the sky,
Those heavenly guards around thee wait,
Like chariots that attend thy state.
Not Sinai's mountain could appear
More glorious when the Lord was there!
While he pronounced his dreadful law,
And struck the chosen tribes with awe.
How bright the triumph none can tell,
When the rebellious powers of hell,
That thousand souls had captive made,
Were all in chains like captives led
Raised by his Father to the throne,
L. M. He sent the promised Spirit down,
With gifts and grace for rebel men,
That God might dwell on earth again.
Soon may the last glad song arise
Through all the millions of the skies,
That song of triumph which records
That all the earth is now the Lord's,
Let thrones, and powers, and kingdoms be
Obedient, mighty God, to thee;
Isaac Watts, 1819.
He shall reign forever and ever.
Rev. xi. 15
L. M.
79
Ascend thy throne, Almighty King,
And spread thy glories all abroad;
And over land, and stream, and main,Let thine own arm salvation bring,
Wave thou the sceptre of thy reign.
Oh, that the anthem now might swell,
And host to host the triumph tell,
That not one rebel heart remains,
But over all the Saviour reigns.
And be thou known the gracious God.
Oh, let the kingdoms of the world
Become the kingdom of the Lord;
Let saints and angels praise thy name,
Be thou through heaven and earth adored.
Benjamin Beddome, 1818. ab.
Awake, Gbou that Sleepest!
He led captivity captive. Eph. iv. 8.
80
Our Lord is risen from the dead;
Our Jesus is gone up on high!
The powers of hell are captive led,
Dragged to the portals of the sky;
It is high time to awake out of sleep. Rom. xiii. 11. thine eyes:
There his triumphant chariot waits,
And angels chant the solemn lay;
Lift up your heads, ye heavenly gates;
Ye everlasting doors, give way!
Loose all your bars of massy light,
And wide unfold the ethereal scene;
He claims these mansions as his right;
Receive the King of glory in!
Who is the King of glory? Who?
The Lord that all our foes o'ercame;
The world, sin, death, and hell o'erthrew ;
And Jesus is the Conqueror's name."
Lo! his triumphal chariot waits,
And angels chant the solemn lay:
Lift up your heads, ye heavenly gates;
Ye everlasting doors, give way!
Who is the King of glory? Who?
The Lord, of glorious power possessed;
The King of saints, and angels too,
God over all, forever blessed!
Strong drink is raging. Prov. xx. 1.
81
Bondage and death the cup contains;
Dash to the earth the poisoned bowl?
Softer than silk are iron chains,
Compared with those that chafe the soul.
Hosannas, Lord, to thee we sing,
Whose power the giant fiend obeys;
What countless thousands tribute bring,
For happier homes and brighter days!
Thou wilt not break the bruised reed,
Nor leave the broken heart unbound;
The wife regains a husband freed!
The orphan clasps a father found!
Spare, Lord, the thoughtless, guide the blind,
Till man no more shall deem it just
To live by forging chains to bind
His weaker brother in the dust.
Lucius M. Sargent, 1786-1867.
Awake, my soul, lift up
See where thy foes against thee rise
In long array, a numerous host:
Awake, my soul, or thou art lost.
See where rebellious passions rage,
And fierce desires and lusts engage;
The meanest foe of all the train
Has thousands and ten thousands slain.
Thou tread'st upon enchanted ground,
Perils and snares beset thee round;
But most, the traitor in thy heart.
Beware of all, guard every part,
Come, then, my soul, now learn to wield
The weight of thine immortal shield;
Put on the armor from above
Of heavenly truth and heavenly love.
The terror and the charm repel,
The powers of earth, and powers of hell;
The Man of Calvary triumphed here:
Why should his faithful followers fear?
Mrs. Anna Laetitia Barbauld, 1778, ab.
My soul thirsteth for God. Psalm xlii. 2.
85 2 Take my poor heart, and let it be Forever closed to all but Thee! Seal thou my breast, and let me wear That pledge of love forever there!
3 How blest are they who still abide Close sheltered in thy bleeding side! Who life and strength from thence derive, And by thee move, and in thee live. 4 What are our works but sin and death, Till thou thy quickening Spirit breathe? Thou givest the power thy grace to move: O wondrous grace! O boundless love! 5 How can it be, thou heavenly King, That thou should'st us to glory bring? Make slaves the partners of thy throne, Decked with a never-fading crown? 6 Hence our hearts melt! our eyes o'erflow; Our words are lost; nor will we know, Nor will we think of aught beside,
My Lord, my Love is crucified."
7 Ah, Lord! enlarge our scanty thought,
To know the wonders thou hast wrought;
Unloose our stammering tongues, to tell
Thy love immense, unsearchable.
8 First-born of many brethren Thou!
To thee, lo! all our souls we bow:
To thee our hearts and hands we give:
Thine may we die: thine may we live!
W. C. Dessler, d. 1722. Tr. J. Wesley. 1740.
Ye shall find rest for your souls.
Jer. vi. 16.
O that my load of sin were gone!
O that I could at last submit
At Jesus' feet to lay it down,
To lay my soul at Jesus' feet!
When shall mine eyes behold the Lamb?
The God of my salvation see?
Weary, O Lord, thou knowest I am;
Oh, that I now might come to thee.
Rest for my soul I long to find:
Saviour of all, if mine thou art,
Give me thy meek and lowly mind,
And stamp thine image on my heart.
Break off the yoke of inbred sin,
And fully set my spirit free:
I cannot rest till pure within,
Till I am wholly lost in thee.
Fain would I learn of thee, my God;
Thy light and easy burden prove,
The cross, all stained with hallowed blood,
The labor of thy dying love.
I would, but thou must give the power,
My heart from every sin release;
Bring near, bring near the joyful hour,
And fill me with thy perfect peace.
Come, Lord, the drooping sinner cheer,
Nor let thy chariot-wheels delay;
Appear, in my poor heart appear!
My God, my Saviour, come away!
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