3 Yet the dear path to thine abode
Lies through this horrid land;

Lord, we would keep the heavenly road,
And run at thy command.

4 [Our souls shall tread the desert through
With undiverted feet;

And faith and flaming zeal subdue
The terrors that we meet.

5 A thousand savage beasts of prey
Around the forest roam;

But Judah's Lion guards the way,
And guides the strangers home.

6 [Long nights and darkness dwell below,
With scarce a twinkling ray;

But the bright world to which we go
Is everlasting day.]

7 [By glimmering hopes and gloomy fears
We trace the sacred road;

Through dismal deeps and dangerous snares
We make our way to God.]

8 Our journey is a thorny maze,
But we march upward still;
Forget these troubles of the way,
And reach at Zion's hill.

9 [See the kind angels at the gates
Inviting us to come;

There Jesus the forerunner waits
To welcome travellers home.]

10 There on a green and flowery mount
Our weary souls shall sit,

And with transporting joy recount
The labours of our feet.

11 [No vain discourse shall fill our tongue,
Nor trifles vex our ear;
Infinite grace shall be our song,
And God rejoice to hear.]

1

12 Eternal glories to the King

That brought us safely through,

Our tongues shall never cease to sing, And endless praise renew.

HYMN 54. C. M.

God's presence is light in darkness.

MY God, the spring of all my joys,
The life of my delights,

The glory of my brightest days,
And comfort of my nights.

2 In darkest shades if he appear,
My dawning is begun;

He is my soul's sweet morning star,
And he my rising sun.

3 The opening heavens around me shine,
With beams of sacred bliss,
While Jesus shows his heart is mine,
And whispers, I am his.

4 My soul would leave this heavy clay
At that transporting word,
Run up with joy the shining way,
To embrace my dearest Lord.
5 Fearless of hell and ghastly death,
I'd break through every foe;
The wings of love and arms of faith
Should bear me conqueror through.

HYMN 55. C. M.

Frail life and succeeding eternity.
HEE we adore, Eternal name,

IT and humbly own to thee

How feeble is our mortal frame,
What dying worms are we!

2 Our wasting lives grow shorter still
As months and days increase;
And every beating pulse we tell
Leaves but the number less.

The breath that first it gave; Whate'er we do, where'er we be, We're travelling to the grave.

4 Dangers stand thick through all the ground, To push us to the tomb,

And fierce diseases wait around,

To hurry mortals home.

5 Good God! on what a slender thread
Hang everlasting things!

The eternal states of all the dead
Upon life's feeble strings!

6 Infinite joy or endless woe
Attends on every breath;
And yet how unconcerned we go
Upon the brink of death!

7 Waken, O Lord, our drowsy sense,
To walk this dangerous road;
And if our souls are hurried hence,
May they be found with God.

1

N

O, I shall envy them no more
Who grow profanely great,

Though they increase their golden store,
And rise to wondrous height.

2 They taste of all the joys that grow
Upon this earthly clod,

Well, they may search the creature through, For they have ne'er a God.

3 Shake off the thoughts of dying too,
And think your life your own;

But death comes hastening on to you,
To mow your glory down.

4 Yes, you must bow your stately head,
Away your spirit flies,

And no kind angel near your bed,
To bear it to the skies.

5 Go, now, and boast of all your stores,
And tell how bright you shine;
Your heaps of glittering dust are yours,
And my Redeemer 's mine.

HYMN 57. L. M.

The pleasures of a good conscience.
ORD, how secure and blest are they
Who feel the joys of pardoned sin!

Should storms of wrath shake earth and sea, Their minds have heaven and peace within. 2 The day glides sweetly o'er their heads, Made up of innocence and love;

And soft and silent as the shades
Their nightly minutes gently move.

3 [Quick as their thoughts their joys come on, But fly not half so fast away;

Their souls are ever bright as noon,
And calm as summer evenings be.

4 How oft they look to the heavenly hills,
Where groves of living pleasure grow!
And longing hopes and cheerful smiles
Sit undisturbed upon their brow.]

5 They scorn to seek our golden toys,
But spend the day and share the night
In numbering o'er the richer joys
That heaven prepares for their delight.
6 While wretched we, like worms and moles,
Lie grovelling in the dust below:
Almighty grace, renew our souls,
And we 'll aspire to glory too.

HYMN 58. C. M.

The shortness of life, and the goodness of God.

TIME! what an empty vapour 'tis !

And days how swift they are!
Swift as an Indian arrow flies,
Or like a shooting star.

2 [The present moments just appear,

Then slide away in haste,
That we can never say, They're here,'
But only say, They're past.']

3 [Our life is ever on the wing,
And death is ever nigh;
The moment when our lives begin
We all begin to die.]

4 Yet, mighty God, our fleeting days
Thy lasting favours share,"

Yet with the bounties of thy grace
Thou loadest the rolling year.

5 'Tis sovereign mercy finds us food,
And we are clothed with love;

While grace stands pointing out the road That leads our souls above.

6 His goodness runs an endless round;
All glory to the Lord:

His mercy never knows a bound,
And be his name adored!

7 Thus we begin the lasting song,
And when we close our eyes,
Let the next age thy praise prolong
Till time and nature dies.

1

HYMN 59. C. M.

Paradise on earth.

GLORY to God that walks the sky,

And sends his blessings through,
That tells his saints of joys on high,
And gives a taste below.

2 [Glory to God that stoops his throne
That dust and worms may see 't,
And brings a glimpse of glory down
Around his sacred feet.

3 When Christ, with all his graces crowned, Sheds his kind beams abroad,

'Tis a young heaven on earthly ground, And glory in the bud.

4 A blooming paradise of joy

In this wild desert springs;

And every sense I straight employ
On sweet celestial things.

5 White lilies all around appear,
And each his glory shows;
The rose of Sharon blossoms here,
The fairest flower that blows.

6 Cheerful I feast on heavenly fruit,
And drink the pleasures down,
Pleasures that flow hard by the foot
Of the eternal throne.]

7 But ah! how soon my joys decay!
How soon my sins arise,
And snatch the heavenly scene away
From these lamenting eyes!

8 When shall the time, dear Jesus, when
The shining day appear,

That I shall leave those clouds of sin,
And guilt and darkness here ?

9 Up to the fields above the skies
My hasty feet would go,
There everlasting flowers arise,
And joys unwithering grow.

HYMN 60. L. M.

14 Each of them powerful as that sound
That bid the new-made heavens go round;
And stronger than the solid poles,
On which the wheel of nature rolls.]

5 Whence then should doubts and fears arise,
Why trickling sorrows drown our eyes?
Slowly, alas, our mind receives
The comforts that our Maker gives.
6 O for a strong, a lasting faith,

To credit what the Almighty saith!
Tembrace the message of his Son,
And call the joys of heaven our own.
7 Then should the earth's old pillars shake,
And all the wheels of nature break,
Our steady souls should fear no more
Than solid rocks when billows roar.

8 Our everlasting hopes arise
Above the ruinable skies,

Where the eternal Builder reigns.
And his own courts his power sustains
HYMN 61. C. M.

A thought of death and glory.

MAnd think how near it stands,

Y soul, come meditate the day,

When thou must quit this house of clay,
And fly to unknown lands.

2 [And you, mine eyes, look down and view
The hollow gaping tomb;
This gloomy prison waits for you
Whene'er the summons come.]

3 O could we die with those that die,
And place us in their stead,
Then would our spirits learn to fly,
And converse with the dead:

4 Then should we see the saints above
In their own glorious forms,

And wonder why our souls should love
To dwell with mortal worms.

5 [How we should scorn these clothes of flesh, These fetters and this load!

And long for evening to undress,
That we may rest with God.]

6 We should almost forsake our clay
Before the summons come,
and wish our souls away
To their eternal home.

1

And

pray

HYMN 62. C. M.

God the thunderer; or, The last judgment, and hell.*

SING to the Lord, ye heavenly hosts,

And thou, O earth, adore,

Let death and hell through all their coasts
Stand trembling at his power.

2 His sounding chariot shakes the sky,
He makes the clouds his throne;
There all his stores of lightning lie,
Till vengeance dart them down.

3 His nostrils breathe out fiery streams,
And from his awful tongue

A sovereign voice divides the flames,
And thunder roars along.

4 Think, O my soul, the dreadful day,

When this incensed God

Shall rend the sky, and burn the sea,
And fling his wrath abroad.

5 What shall the wretch the sinner do?
He once defied the Lord;

But he shall dread the Thunderer now,
And sink beneath his word.

6 Tempests of angry fire shall roll
To blast the rebel-worm,

And beat upon his naked soul

In one eternal storm.

3 Great God, is this our certain doom?
And are we still secure?

Still walking downward to our tomb,
And yet prepare no more?

4 Grant us the powers of quickening grace To fit our souls to fly,

1

Then, when we drop this dying flesh,
We'll rise above the sky.

HYMN 64. L. M.

God the glory and defence of Sion.

HAPPY the church, thou sacred place,

The seat of thy Creator's grace; Thine holy courts are his abode, Thou earthly palace of our God.

2 Thy walls are strength, and at thy gates
A guard of heavenly warriors waits;
Nor shall thy deep foundations move,
Fixed on his counsels and his love.
3 Thy foes in vain designs engage,
Against his throne in vain they rage,
Like rising waves, with angry roar,
That dash and die upon the shore.
4 Then let our souls in Zion dwell,

Nor fear the wrath of Rome and hell:
His arms embrace this happy ground,
Like brazen bulwarks built around.
5 God is our shield, and God our sun;
Swift as the fleeting moments run,
On us he sheds new beams of grace,
And we reflect his brightest praise.

1

HYMN 65. C. M.

The hope of heaven our support under trials on earth.

WHEN I can read my title clear

To mansions in the skies,

I bid farewell to every fear,

And wipe my weeping eyes.

2 Should earth against my soul engage,
And hellish darts be hurled,
Then I can smile at Satan's rage,
And face a frowning world.

3 Let cares like a wild deluge come,
And storms of sorrow fall,
May I but safely reach my home,
My God, my heaven, my all.

4 There shall I bathe my weary soul
In seas of heavenly rest,
And not a wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast.

HYMN 66. C. M.

A prospect of heaven makes death easy.

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-withering flowers:
Death like a narrow sea divides
This heavenly land from ours.

3 [Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dressed in living green:
So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan rolled between.

4 But timorous mortals start and shrink
To cross this narrow sea,
And linger shivering on the brink,
And fear to launch away.]

5 O! 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 stream, nor death's cold flood, Should fright us from the shore.

HYMN 67. C. M.

God's eternal dominion.

infinite art thou!

What worthless worms are we !
Let the whole race of creatures bow
And pay their praise to thee.

2 Thy throne eternal ages stood,
Ere seas or stars were made;
Thou art the ever-living God
Were all the nations dead.
3 Nature and time quite naked lie
To thine immense survey,
From the formation of the sky
To the great burning day.

4 Eternity with all its years
Stands present in thy view;

To thee there's nothing old appears,
Great God, there's nothing new.

5 Our lives through various scenes are drawn, And vexed with trifling cares;

While thine eternal thought moves on
Thine undisturbed affairs.

6 Great God, how infinite art thou!
What worthless worms are we!
Let the whole race of creatures bow,
And pay their praise to thee.

1

HYMN 68. C. M.

The humble worship of heaven.

ATHER, I long, I faint to see

FAT

The place of thine abode,

I'd leave thy earthly courts, and flee Up to thy seat, my God!

2 Here I behold thy distant face,
And 'tis a pleasing sight;

But to abide in thine embrace
Is infinite delight.

3 [I'd part with all the joys of sense
To gaze upon thy throne;

Pleasure springs fresh for ever thence,
Unspeakable, unknown.

4 [There all the heavenly hosts are seen
In shining ranks they move,
And drink immortal vigour in
With wonder and with love.

5 Then at thy feet with awful fear,
The adoring, armies fall;

With joy they shrink to nothing there, Before the Eternal All.

6 There I would vie with all the host In duty and in bliss,

While less than nothing I could boast, And vanity confess.]

7 The more thy glories strike mine eyes, The humbler I shall lie;

Thus while I sink, my joys shall rise
Unmeasurably high.

HYMN 69. C. M.

The faithfulness of God in his promises. Band speak some boundless thing,

EGIN, my tongue, some heavenly theme,

The mighty works, or mightier name
Of our eternal King.

Isa. xl. 17.

2 Tell of his wondrous faithfulness,

And sound his power abroad,
Sing the sweet promise of his grace,
And the performing God.

3 Proclaim salvation from the Lord
For wretched dying men ;'

His hand has writ the sacred word
With an immortal pen.

4 Engraved as in eternal brass

The mighty promise shines;

Nor can the powers of darkness rase
Those everlasting lines.]

5 [He that can dash whole worlds to death,
And make them when he please,
He speaks, and that almighty breath
Fulfils his great decrees.

6 His very word of grace is strong

As that which built the skies,

The voice that rolls the stars along
Speaks all the promises.

7 He said, Let the wide heaven be spread,
And heaven was stretched abroad;
'Abra'm, I'll be thy God,' he said,
And he was Abra'm's God.

8 O, might I hear thine heavenly tongue
But whisper, Thou art mine;'

Those gentle words should raise my song
To notes almost divine.

9 How would my leaping heart rejoice,
And think my heaven secure!

I trust the all-creating voice,
And faith desires no more.]

'G Makes all the roaring waves rejoice,

OD of the seas, thy thundering voice

And one soft word of thy command
Can sink them silent in the sand.

2 If but a Moses wave thy rod,

The sea divides and owns its God:
The stormy floods their Maker knew,
And let his chosen armies through.
3 The scaly flocks amidst the sea,

To thee, their Lord, a tribute pay;
The meanest fish that swims the flood,
Leaps up, and means a praise to God.
4 [The larger monsters of the deep
On thy commands attendance keep,
By thy permission sport and play,
And cleave along their foaming way.
5 If God his voice of tempest rears,
Leviathan lies still and fears;
Anon he lifts his nostrils high,
And spouts the ocean to the sky.
6 How is thy glorious power adored,
Amidst those watery nations, Lord!
Yet the bold men that trace the seas,
Bold men, refuse their Maker's praise.
7 [What scenes of miracles they see,
And never tune a song to thee!
While on the flood they safely ride,
They curse the hand that smooths the tide.

8 Anon they plunge in watery graves,
And some drink death among the waves;
Yet the surviving crew blaspheme,
Nor own the God that rescued them.]

9 O for some signal of thine hand,

Shake all the seas, Lord, shake the land,
Great Judge, descend, lest men deny
That there's a God that rules the sky.

From the 70th to the 109th Hymn, I hope the reader will forgive the neglect of rhyme in the first and third lines of the stanza.

1

Praise to God from all creatures.

THE glories of my Maker God
My joyful voice shall sing,

And call the nations to adore

Their Former and their King.

2 'Twas his right hand that shaped our clay, And wrought this human frame,

But from his own immediate breath
Our nobler spirits came.

3 We bring our mortal powers to God,
And worship with our tongues:
We claim some kindred with the skies,
And join the angelic songs.

4 Let grovelling beasts of every shape,
And fowls of every wing.

And rocks, and trees, and fires, and seas, Their various tribute bring.

5 Ye planets, to his honour shine,
And wheels of nature roll,

Praise him in your unwearied course
Around the steady pole.

6 The brightness of our Maker's name
The wide creation fills,

1

And his unbounded grandeur flies Beyond the heavenly hills.

B Beheld our rising God,

LESSED morning, whose young dawn-
(ing rays

That saw him triumph o'er the dust,
And leave his dark abode.

2 In the cold prison of a tomb
The dead Redeemer lay,
Till the revolving skies had brought
The third, the appointed day.

3 Hell and the grave unite their force
To hold our God in vain,
The sleeping Conqueror arose,
And burst their feeble chain.

4 To thy great name, Almighty Lord,
These sacred hours we pay,
And loud hosannas shall proclaim
The triumph of the day.

5 [Salvation and immortal praise
To our victorious King,

Let heaven, and earth, and rocks, and seas, With glad hosannas ring.]

1

And bow their necks to men,

But we, more base, more brutish things,
Reject his easy reign.]

Turn, turn us, mighty God,

And mould our souls afresh,

Break, sovereign grace, these hearts of stone, And give us hearts of flesh.

Let old ingratitude

Provoke our weeping eyes,

And hourly as new mercies fall Let hourly thanks arise.

HYMN 75. C. M.

Spiritual and eternal joys; or, The beatific sight of Christ.

FROM

ROM thee, my God, my joys shall rise,
And run eternal rounds,

Beyond the limits of the skies,

And all created bounds.

2 The holy triumphs of my soul
Shall death itself out-brave,
Leave dull mortality behind,
And fly beyond the grave.

3 There, where my blessed Jesus reigns,
In heaven's unmeasured space,

I'll spend a long eternity

In pleasure and in praise.

4 Millions of years my wondering eyes
Shall o'er thy beauties rove,
And endless ages I'll adore
The glories of thy love.

5 [Sweet Jesus, every smile of thine
Shall fresh endearments bring,
And thousand tastes of new delight
From all thy graces spring.

6 Haste, my Beloved, fetch my soul
Up to thy blessed abode,
Fly, for my spirit longs to see
My Saviour and my God.]

1

HYMN 76. C. M.

The resurrection and ascension of Christ.

H That clothed himself in clay;

OSANNA to the Prince of light,

Entered the iron gates of death,
And tore the bars away.

2 Death is no more the king of dread
Since our Immanuel rose;

He took the tyrant's sting away,
And spoiled our hellish foes."

3 See how the Conqueror mounts aloft,
And to his Father flies,

With scars of honour in his flesh,
And triumph in his eyes.

4 There our exalted Saviour reigns,
And scatters blessings down,
Our Jesus fills the middle seat

Of the celestial throne.

5 [Raise your devotion, mortal tongues,
To reach his blessed abode,
Sweet be the accents of your songs
To our incarnate God.

6 Bright angels, strike your loudest strings,
Your sweetest voices raise,
Let heaven and all created things
Sound our Immanuel's praise.]

STA

HYMN 77. L. M.

The Christian warfare.

TAND up, my soul, shake off thy fears,
And gird the gospel-armour on,
March to the gates of endless joy,
Where thy great Captain-Saviour's gone.
2 Hell and thy sins resist thy course,
But hell and sin are vanquished foes;
Thy Jesus nailed them to the cross,
And sung the triumph when he rose.
3 [What though the prince of darkness rage,
And waste the fury of his spite,

Eternal chains confine him down
To fiery deeps and endless night.

4 What though thine inward lusts rebel,
'Tis but a struggling gasp for life;
The weapons of victorious grace
Shall slay thy sins, and end the strife.]
5 Then let my soul march boldly on,
Press forward to the heavenly gate;
There peace and joy eternal reign,
And glittering robes for conquerors wait.
6 There shall I wear a starry crown,
And triumph in almighty grace,
While all the armies of the skies
Join in my glorious Leader's praise.

1

HYMN 78. C. M.

Redemption by Christ.

WHEN the first parents of our race

Rebelled and lost their God,

And the infection of their sin
Had tainted all our blood;

2 Infinite pity touched the heart
Of the eternal Son,

Descending from the heavenly court, He left his Father's throne.

3 Aside the Prince of glory threw
His most divine array,

And wrapt his Godhead in a veil
Of our inferior clay.

4 His living power and dying love
Redeemed unhappy men,

And raised the ruins of our race
To life and God again.

5 To thee, dear Lord, our flesh and soul We joyfully resign;

Blest Jesus, take us for thy own,

For we are doubly thine.

6 Thine honour shall for ever be The business of our days;

1

For ever shall our thankful tongues
Speak thy deserved praise.

HYMN 79. C. M.

Praise to the Redeemer.

PLUNGED in a gulf of dark despair

We wretched sinners lay,

Without one cheerful beam of hope,
Or spark of glimmering day.

2 With pitying eyes the Prince of grace Beheld our helpless grief;

He saw, and (O amazing love!)
He ran to our relief.

3 Down from the shining seats above
With joyful haste he fled,
Entered the grave in mortal flesh,
And dwelt among the dead.

4 He spoiled the powers of darkness thus, And brake our iron chains;

Jesus has freed our captive souls
From everlasting pains.