The Curse and the Blessing.
1 To Adam thus Jehovah spake :
"The ground is cursed for thy sake;
Thence eat thy bread, and there once more
Become the dust thou wert before.
2" Serpent," again Jehovah said,
"The woman's seed shall bruise thy head, Yet in the strife thy fury feel,
For thou shalt turn and wound his heel."
3 He comes; we hail his glorious birth,
Who brings the blessing back to earth;
Nor Eden only, but the Tree
Of life and immortality.
Christ our Example in Suffering.
1 Go to dark Gethsemane,
Ye that feel the tempter's power,
Your Redeemer's conflict see,
Watch with Him one bitter hour;
Turn not from his griefs away,
Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.
2 Follow to the judgment-hall,
View the Lord of life arraign'd;
O the wormwood and the gall!
O the pangs his soul sustain'd!
Shun not suffering, shame, or loss;
Learn of Him to bear the cross.
3 Calvary's mournful mountain climb;
There, adoring at his feet,
Mark that miracle of Time,
-God's own sacrifice complete:
"It is finish'd;"-hear Him cry;
Learn of Jesus Christ to die.
4 Early hasten to the tomb,
Where they laid his breathless clay;
All is solitude and gloom,
-Who hath taken Him away?
Christ is risen;-He meets our eyes;
Saviour, teach us so to rise.
1 THE morning dawns upon the place Where Jesus spent the night in prayer; Through yielding glooms behold his face, Nor form nor comeliness is there.
2 Last eve, by those He call'd his own, Betray'd, forsaken, or denied,
He met his enemies alone,
In all their malice, rage, and pride.
3 Brought forth to judgment, now He stands
Arraign'd, condemn'd at Pilate's bar,
Here spurn'd by fierce Prætorian bands,
There mock'd by Herod's men of war.
4 He bears their buffeting and scorn,
Mock-homage of the lip, the knee,
The purple robe, the crown of thorn,
The scourge, the nail, the' accursed tree.
5 No guile within his mouth is found,
He neither threatens nor complains;
Meek as a Lamb for slaughter bound,
Dumb 'midst his murderers He remains.
6 But hark! He prays,-'tis for his foes;
He speaks,-'tis comfort to his friends;
Answers, and Paradise bestows;
He bows his head; the conflict ends.
7 Truly this was the Son of God!
-Though in a servant's mean disguise,
And bruised beneath the Father's rod,
Not for Himself,-for Man He dies.
The three Mountains.
I WHEN on Sinai's top I see
God descend in majesty,
To proclaim his holy law,
All my spirit sinks with awe.
2 When, in ecstacy sublime,
Tabor's glorious steep I climb,
At the too transporting light,
Darkness rushes o'er my sight.
3 When on Calvary I rest,
God, in flesh made manifest,
Shines in my Redeemer's face,
Full of beauty, truth, and grace.
4 Here I would for ever stay,
Weep and gaze my soul away;
Thou art heaven on earth to me,
Lovely, mournful Calvary!
A Fountain opened for Sin and Uncleanness.
1 COME to Calvary's holy mountain,
Sinners, ruin'd by the fall;
Here a pure and healing fountain
Flows to you, to me, to all,
In a full, perpetual tide,
Open'd when our Saviour died.
2 Come, in poverty and meanness,
Come, defiled without, within;
From infection and uncleanness,
From the leprosy of sin,
Wash your robes, and make them white;
Ye shall walk with God in light.
3 Come, in sorrow and contrition,
Wounded, impotent, and blind;
Here the guilty free remission,
Here the troubled peace may find:
Health this fountain will restore,
He that drinks shall thirst no more:4 He that drinks shall live for ever; 'Tis a soul-renewing flood: God is faithful;-God will never Break his covenant in blood, Sign'd when our Redeemer died, Seal'd when He was glorified.
The Power of Christ's Resurrection. 1 COME see the place where Jesus lay, For He hath left his gloomy bed; What Angel roll'd the stone away? What Spirit brought Him from the dead? 2 By his omnipotence He rose, By his own Spirit lived again, To crush forever all his foes, To raise for ever ruin'd men.
3 Those who his image here partake,
Though worms in dust their flesh consume,
Shall sleep in Jesus, and awake
To life eternal from the tomb.
4 What shall restore a world from death,
Where Satan holds his murderous reign?
Spirit of Jesus, with thy breath,
Shake the dry bones, revive the slain.
5 Dead while they live are Adam's race,
By nature, since their father's fall;
But, lo! the messengers of grace
Proclaim the gospel-hope to all.
6 Hear it, ye dead, of every clime,
Before the second death begins;
Come forth to this new life in time;
-This resurrection from your sins.
Moses in the Desert.
1 Go where a foot hath never trod,
Through unfrequented forests flee,
The wilderness is full of God,
His presence dwells in every tree.
2 To Israel and to Egypt dead,
Moses the fugitive appears;
Unknown he lived, till o'er his head
Had fall'n the snow of fourscore years.
3 But God the wandering exile found
In his appointed time and place;
The desert-sand grew holy ground,
And Horeb's rock a throne of grace.
4 The lowly bush a tree became,
A tree of beauty and of light,
Involved with unconsuming flame,
That made the noon around it night.
5 Thence came the' eternal voice that spake Salvation to the chosen seed;
Thence went the' Almighty arm, that brake
Proud Pharaoh's yoke, and Israel freed.
6 By Moses, old and slow of speech,
These mighty miracles were shown;
Jehovah's messenger!-to teach
That power belongs to God alone.
1 WITH wandering Jacob, let us say,
"If God will keep me by the way,
Guide and defend me, clothe and feed,
Then God shall be my God indeed."
2 With Him who led the ransom'd flock
Through the Red Sea to Sinai's rock,
Be this our one supreme request,
"Thy presence with us go or rest."
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