4 A thousand ages in thy sight

Are like an evening gone,
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

5 The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their cares and fears,
Are carried downward by the flood,
And lost in following years.

6 Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

7 O God! our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come,

Be thou our guard while life shall last, And our perpetual home.

42

1 THEE

C. M.

we adore, eternal name! And humbly own to thee, How feeble is our mortal frame,

What dying worms we be !

2 Our wasting lives grow shorter still, As days and months increase; And every beating pulse we tell

Leaves but the number less.

3 The year rolls round, and steals away
The breath that first it gave;
Whate'er we do, where'er we be,
We are travelling to the grave.

4 Dangers stand thick through all the
To push us to the tomb; [ground,
And fierce diseases wait around,
To hurry mortals home.

5 Great 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,

Depends 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 be hurried hence, May they be found with God!

43

1

AND am I born to die?

S. M.

To lay this body down?
And must my trembling spirit fly
Into a world unknown-
A land of deepest shade,
Unpierced by human thought,
The dreary regions of the dead,
Where all things are forgot?

2 Soon as from earth I go, What will become of me? Eternal happiness or woe

Must then my portion be; Waked by the trumpet's sound, I from my grave shall rise, And see the Judge with glory crowned, And see the flaming skies.

3 How shall I leave my tomb? With triumph or regret ? A fearful or a joyful doom,

A curse or blessing meet? Will angel-bands convey Their brother to the bar? Or devils drag my soul away,

To meet its sentence there?

4 Who can resolve the doubt

That tears my anxious breast?
Shall I be with the damned cast out,
Or numbered with the blest?
I must from God be driven,
Or with my Saviour dwell;
Must come at his command to heaven,
Or else depart to hell.

5 0 thou that wouldst not have
One wretched sinner die,

Who diedst thyself, my soul to save
From endless misery!

2 How then ought I on earth to live,
While God prolongs the kind reprieve,
And props the house of clay?
My sole concern, my single care,
To watch, and tremble, and prepare
Against the fatal day.

3 No room for mirth or trifling here,
For worldly hope, or worldly fear,
If life so soon is gone:

If now the Judge is at the door,
And all mankind must stand before
The inexorable throne!

4 No matter which my thoughts employ,

A moment's misery, or joy;

But O! when both shall end,

Shall I my everlasting days

With fiends or angels spend?

5 Nothing is worth a thought beneath But how I may escape the death

That never, never dies; How make mine own election sure, And, when I fail on earth, secure A mansion in the skies.

When youth its pride or beauty shows;

Fairer than spring the colours shine,
And sweeter than the virgin rose.

4 Or worn by slowly-rolling years,
Or broke by sickness in a day,
The fading glory disappears,
The short-lived beauties die away.

Shall quit, like me, the vale of tears, Their righteous sentence to receive. 2 But all, before they hence remove, May mansions for themselves prepare In that eternal house above;

49

And, O my God, shall I be there?
8 s.

REJOICE for a brother deceased,

Our loss is his infinite gain;

A soul out of prison released,

And freed from its bodily chain; With songs let us follow his flight, And mount with his spirit above, Escaped to the mansions of light,

And lodged in the Eden of love.

2 Our brother the haven hath gained,
Out-flying the tempest and wind,
His rest he hath sooner obtained,
And left his companions behind,
Still tossed on a sea of distress,

Hard toiling to make the blest shore,
Where all is assurance and peace,

And sorrow and sin are no more.

3 There all the ship's company meet
Who sailed with the Saviour beneath,
With shouting each other they greet,
And triumph o'er trouble and death:
The voyage of life's at an end,
The mortal affliction is past;
The age

50

1

that in heaven they spend, For ever and ever shall last.

8-7s.

2 Lo! the prisoner is released,

Lightened of his fleshly load; Where the weary are at rest, He is gathered into God; Lo! the pain of life is past, All his warfare now is o'er, Death and nell behind are cast, Grief and suffering are no more. 3 Yes, the Christian's course is run, Ended is the glorious strife; Fought the fight, the work is done, Death is swallowed up of life! Borne by angels on their wings,

Far from earth the spirit flies, Finds his God, and sits and sings, Triumphing in Paradise.

4 Join we then, with one accord,

In the new, the joyful song; Absent from our loving Lord We shall not continue long; We shall quit the house of clay, We a better lot shall share, We shall see the realms of day, Meet our happy brother there. 5 Let the world bewail their dead, Fondly of their loss complain, Brother, friend, by Jesus freed, Death to thee, to us, is gain; Thou art entered into joy:

Let the unbelievers mourn; We in songs our lives employ, Till we all to God return.

8-7s.

HARK

Reconciled by grace below,

Grace hath opened mercy's door;
Justified through faith alone

Here they knew their sins forgiven, Here they laid their burden down, Hallowed, and made meet for heaven. 3 Who can now lament the lot

Of a saint in Christ deceased?
Let the world, who know us not,

Call us hopeless and unblest:
When from flesh the spirit freed
Hastens homeward to return,
Mortals cry, "A man is dead!"
Angels sing, "A child is born!"
4 Born into the world above,

They our happy brother greet,
Bear him to the throne of love,

Place him at the Saviour's feet;
Jesus smiles, and says, "Well done,
Good and faithful servant thou;
Enter, and receive thy crown,

Reign with me triumphant now." 5 Angels catch the approving sound, Bow, and bless the just award; Hail the heir with glory crowned, Now rejoicing with his Lord: Fuller joys ordained to know,

! a voice divides the sky, Happy are the faithful dead! In the Lord who sweetly die, They from all their toils are freed; Them the Spirit hath declared Blest, unutterably blest; Jesus is their great reward, Jesus is their endless rest.

2 Followed by their works, they go Where their head hath gone before;

Waiting for the general doom, When the archangel's trump shall blow, "Rise, ye dead, to judgment come !"

2-6s & 4-7 s.

AGAIN we lift our voice,

And shout our solemn joys; Cause of highest raptures this, Raptures that shall never fail, See a soul escaped to bliss,

Keep the Christian festival! 2 Our friend is gone before

To that celestial shore; He hath left his mates behind, He hath all the storms outrode; Found the rest we toil to find,

Landed in the arms of God.

52

3 And shall we mourn to see

Our fellow-prisoner free? Free from doubts, and griefs, and fears, In the haven of the skies! Can we weep to see the tears Wiped for ever from his eyes?

4 No, dear companion, no!
We gladly let thee go,
From a suffering church beneath,
To a reigning church above:
Thou hast more than conquered death;
Thou art crowned with life and love.

5 Thou, in thy youthful prime,
Hast leaped the bounds of time,
Suddenly from earth released;
Lo! we now rejoice for thee,
Taken to an early rest,
Caught into eternity.

6 Thither may we repair,
That glorious bliss to share!
We shall see the welcome day,

We shall to the summons bow; Come, Redeemer, come away, Now prepare, and take us now. 53*

1

A Funeral Hymn.

GLORY be to God on high,

8-7s.

God in whom we live and die,
God, who guides us by his love,
Takes us to his throne above!
Angels that surround his throne
Sing the wonders he hath done,
Shout, while we on earth reply
Glory be to God on high!

2 God of everlasting grace,
Worthy thou of endless praise,
Thou hast all thy blessings shed
On the living and the dead;
Thou wast here their sure defence,
Thou hast borne their spirits hence,
Worthy thou of endless praise,
God of everlasting grace.