God our perpetual Preserver and Benefactor.
ALMIGHTY Father! gracious LORD!
Kind Guardian of my days!
Thy mercies let my heart record
In songs of grateful praise.
In life's first dawn, my tender frame
Was thy continual care,
Long ere I could pronounce thy name,
Or breathe an infant's prayer.
Though reason with my stature grew,
How feeble was its aid!
How little of my GOD I knew!
How oft from thee I strayed!
When life hung trembling on a breath,
'Twas thy unfailing love,
Preserv'd me from the stroke of death,
And bade my fears remove.
How many blessings to thy throne
Have rais'd my thankful eye!
How many pass'd almost unknown
Or unregarded by!
Each rolling year new favours brought,
From thy exhaustless store;
In vain, great GOD! my labouring thought
Would count thy mercies o'er.
While thus reflection, through my days,
Thy bounteous hand would trace,
Superior blessings claim my praise,
The blessings of thy grace.
Yes, I adore thee, gracious LORD!
For nobler favours still,
The truths and precepts of thy word,
Which teach me all thy will.
THIS GOD is the GoD we adore,
The faithful unchangeable Friend,
Whose love is as great as his power,
And neither knows measure nor end:
'Tis he is the first and the last,
Whose hand shall conduct us safe home;
We'll praise him for all that is past,
And trust him for all that's to come.
Thanksgivings for Social and Spiritual
Blessings.
HOMAGE pay to God above,
GOD whose nature all is love;
In his praise your breath employ,-
Gracious Source of every joy!
Those who led our early youth,.
In the paths of love and truth,-
All who with affection's glow
Share our joys and griefs below,-
All who e'er our wants redrest,
Or felt with sympathizing breast,-
All are blessings from above;
All are thine, thou God of love!
All our hopes of life and heaven,
Through thy grace alone are given;
Bliss eternal, pure, divine,-
Every gift, O GOD! is thine.
Homage thus to thee we bring,
Of all good exhaustless Spring!
In thy praise our hearts employ,
Gracious Source of every joy!
The Mercies of God thankfully acknowledged.
AWAKE, our souls! awake, our tongues!
Our God demands our grateful songs;
Let all our inmost powers record
The wondrous goodness of the LORD.
Divinely free his mercy flows,
Forgives our sins, allays our woes;
He bids approaching death remove,
And crowns us with a Father's love.
Our youth decay'd his power repairs;
His hand sustains our riper years;
He satisfies our mouths with food,
And feeds our hopes with heavenly good.
His mercy, with unchanging rays,
For ever shines, while time decays;
And children's children shall record
The truth and goodness of the LORD
To those, who, with religious awe,
Love and obey his sacred law,
Whose hearts with pure devotion glow,
Whose lives their grateful homage show.
While all his works his praise proclaim,
Let men unite to bless his name;
Let every heart, and life, and tongue,
Attend and join the sacred song.
Thanksgiving for Divine Mercy.
SOVEREIGN LORD of light and glory!
Author of our mortal frame ! Joyfully we bow before thee, And extol thy holy name: Hallelujah!
Ever sacred be the theme!
Kind Dispenser of each blessing
Which surrounds the human race!
May we, gratefully possessing,
Still adore thy boundless grace:
Hallelujah!
Praise to GOD, immortal praise !
Thus, with humble adoration,
We attend before thy throne;
And with grateful exultation,
Thy abundant mercy own:
Hallelujah!
Praise belongs to thee alone!
In thy every dispensation,
Love and mercy we descry; Thou, the GOD of our salvation! To preserve us still art nigh: Hallelujah!
Glory be to God on high!
194. P. M.
Praise in Prosperity and Adversity.
PRAISE to GOD, immortal praise,
For the love that crowns our days;
Plenteous Source of every joy!
Let thy praise our tongues employ.
All the blessings of the fields,
All the stores the garden yields,
Flocks that whiten all the plain,
Yellow sheaves of ripen'd grain,-
Q
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