372

L. M.

WATTS.

God the Source of Joy here and hereafter.

1 LORD, when I quit this earthly stage,
Where shall I fly but to thy breast?
For I have sought no other home,
For I have learned no other rest.

2 I cannot live contented here

Without some glimpses of thy face; And heaven, without thy presence there, Will be a dark and tiresome place.

3 When earthly cares engross the day,

And hold my thoughts aside from thee,
The shining hours of cheerful light
Are long and tedious years to me.

4 And if no evening visit's paid

Between my Savior and my soul,
How dull the night! how sad the shade!
How mournfully the minutes roll!

373

C. M.

Retirement.

COWPER.

1 FAR from the world, O Lord, I flee,
From strife and tumult far;

From scenes where Satan wages still
His most successful war.

2 The calm retreat, the silent shade,
With prayer and praise agree,

And seem by thy sweet bounty made
For those who follow thee.

3 There, if thy Spirit touch the soul,
And grace her mean abode,

O, with what peace, and joy, and love,
She communes with her God!

4 There, like the nightingale, she pours
Her solitary lays;

Nor asks a witness of her song,
Nor thirsts for human praise.

5 Author and Guardian of my life!
Sweet Source of light divine!

And,

- all harmonious names in one,· My Savior! thou art mine!

6 What thanks I owe thee, and what love,A boundless, endless store,

Shall echo through the realms above,
When time shall be no more.

374

C. M.

DODDRIDGE

Secret Prayer.

1 FATHER divine, thy piercing eye
Shoots through the darkest night;
In deep retirement thou art nigh,
With heart-discerning sight.

2 There shall that piercing eye survey
My duteous homage paid,
With every morning's dawning ray,
And every evening's shade.

3 0, may thy own celestial fire
The incense still inflame,

While my warm vows to thee aspire,
Through my Redeemer's name.

4 So shall the visits of thy love

My soul in secret bless;

So shalt thou deign, in worlds above,
Thy suppliant to confess.

Retirement and Meditation

1 MY God, permit me not to be
A stranger to myself and thee;
Amidst a thousand thoughts I rove,
Forgetful of my highest love.

WATTS.

2 Why should my passions mix with earth,
And thus debase my heavenly birth?
Why should I cleave to things below,
And let my God, my Savior, go ?

3 Call me away from flesh and sense;
One sovereign word can draw me thence;
I would obey the voice divine,

And all inferior joys resign.

4 Be earth, with all her scenes, withdrawn; Let noise and vanity be gone;

In secret silence of the mind

My heaven, and there my God, I find.

Faith of Things unseen.

1 FAITH is the brightest evidence

Of things beyond our sight,

WATTS.

Breaks through the clouds of flesh and sense, And dwells in heavenly light.

377

CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES AND SENTIMENTS.

2 It sets times past in present view,
Brings distant prospects home,
Of things a thousand years ago,
Or thousand years to come.

3 By faith we know the worlds were made
By God's almighty word;

Abra'm, to unknown countries led,
By faith obeyed the Lord.

4 He sought a city fair and high,
Built by the eternal hands;

And faith assures us, though we die,
That heavenly building stands.

377

L. M.

Faith in God's Promises.

WATTS.

1 PRAISE to the goodness of the Lord,
Who rules his people by his word;
And there, as strong as his decrees,
He sets his kindest promises.

2 O for a strong and lasting faith

To credit what the Almighty saith!
To embrace the message of his Son,
And call the joys of heaven our own.

3 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.

4 Our everlasting hopes arise

Above the ruinable skies,

Where the eternal Builder reigns,

And his own courts his power sustains.

378

L. M.

WATTS.

We walk by Faith, not by Sight.

1 'TIS by the faith of joys to come

We walk through deserts dark as night;
Till we arrive at heaven, our home,

Faith is our guide, and faith our light.
2 The want of sight she well supplies;
She makes the pearly gates appear;
Far into distant worlds she pries,
And brings eternal glories near.
3 Cheerful we tread the desert through,
While faith inspires a heavenly ray,
Though lions roar and tempests blow,
And rocks and dangers fill the way.

4 So Abra'm, by divine command,

Left his own house to walk with God; His faith beheld the promised land, And fired his zeal along the road.

379

C. M.

A living and a dead Faith.

WATTS.

1 MISTAKEN souls, that dream of heaven,
And make their empty boast
Of inward joys and sins forgiven,
While they are slaves to lust!

2 Vain are our fancies, airy flights,
If faith be cold and dead;

None but a living power unites
To Christ, the living Head.