3 Ye days and nights, that swiftly borne
From morn to eve, from eve to morn,
Alternate glide away;

Praise him whose never-varying light,
Absent, adds horror to the night,
But, present, gives the day.

4 Ye showers and dews, whose moisture shed
Calls into life the opening seed,
To him your praises yield,
Whose influence wakes the genial birth,
Drops fatness on the pregnant earth,
And crowns the laughing fields.

5 Praise him, ye floods, and seas profound,
Whose waves the spacious earth surround,
And roll from shore to shore;

Aw'd by his voice, ye seas, subside;
Ye floods, within your channels glide,
And tremble and adore.

6 Ye sons of men, his praise display,
Who stamp'd his image on your clay,
And gave it power to move;
Amid his various works ye dwell;
From age to age successive tell
The wonders of his love,

1

HYMN V.

The Ignorance of Man.

MERRICK.

BEHOLD yon new-born infant griev'd

With hunger, thirst, and pain;

That asks to have the wants reliev'd

It knows not to explain.

2 Aloud the speechless suppliant cries,
And utters, as it can,

The woes that in it's bosom rise,
And speak it's nature-man!

3 That infant, whose advancing hour
Life's various sorrows try,

(Sad proof of sin's transmissive power!) That infant, Lord am I.

4 A childhood yet my thoughts confess,
Though long in years mature;
Unknowing whence I feel distress,
And where, or what, it's cure!

Author of good, to thee I turn:
Thy ever-wakeful eye

Alone can all my wants discern ;
Thy hand alone supply.

60 let thy fear within me dwell,
Thy love my footsteps guide;
That love shall vainer loves expel;
That fear, all fears beside.

7 And oh, by error's force subdu'd,
Since oft my stubborn will
Preposterous shuns the latent good,
And grasps the specious ill!

8 Not to my wish, but to my want,
Do thou thy gifts apply:

Unask'd, what good thou knowest grant; What ill, though ask'd deny !

HYMN VI.

Simeon's Song.

TIS enough---the bour is come;

Now within the silent tomb

Let this mortal frame decay,
Mingled with it's kindred clay;
Since thy mercies, oft of old
By thy chosen seers foretold,
Faithful now and stedfast prove,
God of truth, and God of love!
2 Since at length my aged eye,
Sees the day-spring from on high!
Those whom death had overspread
With his dark and dreary shade,
Lift their eyes and from afar
Hail the light of Jacob's star;
Waiting till the promis'd ray
Turn their darkness into day.
3 Sun of righteousness, to thee,
Lo! the nations bow the knee;
And the realms of distant kings
Own the healing of thy wings.
See the beams, intensely shed,
Shine on Sion's favour'd head!
Never may they hence remove,
God of truth, and God of love!

HYMN VII.

God's Love to Men. Ps. viii.

MERRICK.

MERRICK.

IMMORTAL King! thro' earth's wide frame How great thy honour, praise, and name!

Whose reign o'er distant worlds extends, Whose glory heaven's vast height transcends. 2 From infants Thou canst strength upraise, And from their lisping tongues to praise, That, struck with awe, each wrathful band In mute astonishment may stand.

3 When, rapt in thought, with wakeful eye I view the wonders of the sky,

Whose frame thy fingers o'er our head In rich magnificence have spread,-4 The silent moon, with waxing horn Along th' ethereal region borne, The stars with vivid lustre crown'd, That nightly walk their destin'd round,--5 Lord! what is man, that in thy care His humble lot should find a share; Or what the son of man, that Thou Thus to his wants thy ear shouldst bow? 6 His rank awhile, by thy decree, Th' angelic tribes beneath them see, Till round him thy imparted rays With unextinguish'd glory blaze. 7 Subjected to his feet by Thee,

To him all nature bows the knee; The beasts in him their lord behold, The gazing herd, the bleating fold,◄◄ 8 The fowls, of various wing, that fly O'er the vast desert of the sky, And all the watry tribes, that glide Through paths to human sight denied. 9 Immortal King! through earth's wide frame How great thy honour, praise, and name!

Thy reign o'er distant worlds extends,
Thy glory heaven's vast height transcends.

HYMN VIII..

The Christian's Hope. Ps. xvi. 7--11.

THE

MERRICK.

HEE let me bless, the faithful guide,
Whose counsels o'er my life preside,
And wisdom to my wakeful breast
At midnight's silent hour suggest.

2 In all my acts, in each intent,
Thee to my soul my thoughts present,
Whose sure defence my gate has barr'd,
And planted on my right a guard.

3 For this my heart, for this my tongue,
Shall meditate the joyful song;
Hope ev'n in death shall be my guest,
And smooth the pillow of my rest.

4 Thou from the grave my soul shalt free,
Nor leave thy ransom'd one to see
Corruption's power :---before my eyes
The opening paths of life shall rise;

5 Those paths that to thy presence bear,
For plenitude of bliss is there;

And pleasures, Lord, unmix'd with woe,
At thy right hand for ever flow.