3. Here let the pious contemplate, With reverence deep and thought sedate; 4. Religion asks no sacrifice But such as reason justifies ; And oft where trouble meets our eyes, 'Tis mercy's angel in disguise. 5. Trust ye the Lord: how sweet to trace 278. C. M. WATTS. Religious reverence and obedience. 1. WITH my whole heart I've sought thy face; O let me never stray From thy commands, O God of Nor tread the sinners' way! 2. grace, Thy word I've hid within my heart, 3. O that thy statutes every hour 4. To meditate thy precepts, Lord, 5. My God, I long and hope and wait Whilst thy whole law is my delight, WHEREFORE should man, frail child of clay, O why should mortar man be proud? 2. His brightest visions just appear, 3. By doubt perplext, in error lost, 4. Follies and crimes, a countless sum, 5. God of my life, Father divine, And peace 280. P. M. MRS. BARBA ULD. Devout aspirations. 1. GOD, our kind master, merciful as just, 2. He reads the language of the silent tear, And sighs are incense from a heart sincere: He marks the dawn of every virtuous aim, And fans the smoking flax into a flame. 3. O set me from all earthly bondage free; Still every wish that centres not in thee: Bid my fond hopes, my vain disquiets, cease, And point my path to everlasting peace. TEACH me, O teach me, Lord, thy way, By thine unerring precepts led, 2. Inform'd by thee, with sacred awe 3. O turn from vanity mine eye; 4. Long as within this house of clay 5. That mercy, Lord, whose beams extend 282. L. M. HENRY MOORE. 1. AMIDST a world of hopes and fears, A wild of cares, of toils, and tears, Where foes alarm and dangers threat, And pleasures kill, and glories cheat; 2. Shed down, O Lord, a heavenly ray To guide me in the doubtful way; And o'er me hold thy shield of power, To guard me in the dangerous hour. 3. Teach me the flattering paths to shun In which the thoughtless many run, Who for a shade the substance miss, And grasp their ruin in their bliss. 4. May never pleasure, wealth, or pride, 283. C. M. DODDRIDGE. 1. grace, PERPETUAL Source of light and 2. On us, all-worthless as we are, Its wondrous mercy pours, Sure as the heaven's establish'd course, And plenteous as the showers. 3. Inconstant service we repay, And treacherous vows renew; False as the morning's scattering cloud, And transient as the dew. 4. In flowing tears our guilt we mourn, M |