C. M. 616.

Watts. The aged Saint's Reflection and Hope. Psalm 71. 1 My God, my everlasting hope,

I live upon thy truth; Thine hands have held my childhood up,

And strengthened all my youth.

2 Still has my life new wonders seen

Repeated every year;
Behold my days that yet remain,

I trust them to thy care. 3 Cast me not off when strength declines,

When hoary hairs arise ;
And round me let thy glories shine,

Whene'er thy servant dies.
4 Let me thy power and truth proclaim

To the surviving age,
And leave a savor of thy name

When I shall quit the stage.

5 The land of silence and of death Attends

my

next remove ; 0 may these poor

remains of breath Teach the wide world thy love.

1

As various as the moon

Is man's estate below;
To his bright day of gladness soon

Succeeds a night of woe.

3

4

2 The night of woe resigns

Its darkness and its grief;
Again the morn of comfort shines,

And brings our souls relief.
Yet not to fickle chance

Is man's condition given;
His dark and shining hours advance

By the fixed laws of Heaven.
God measures unto all

Their lot of good or ill;
Nor this too great, nor that too small,

Ordained by wisest will.
Let man conform his mind

To every changing state:
Rejoicing now, and now resigned,

And the great issue wait.
Hopeful and humble, bear

Thine evil and thy good:
Nor, by presumption nor despair,

Weak mortal, be subdued.

5

C. M.

618.

COWPER.

Man's Weakness.

1 Weak and irresolute is man:

The purpose of to-day, Woven with pains into his plan,

To-morrow rends away. 2 Some foe to his upright intent

Finds out his weaker part; Virtue engages his assent,

But pleasure wins his heart.

3 Bound on a voyage of fearful length,

Through dangers little known, A stranger to superior strength,

Man vainly trusts his own.

4 But oars alone can ne'er prevail

To reach the distant coast; The breath of heaven must swell the sail,

Or all the toil is lost.

C. H. M.

619.

J. TAYLOR.

What is your Life?

1 O what is life?- 't is like a flower

That blossoms and is gone;
It flourishes its little hour,

With all its beauty on:
Death comes, and, like a wintry day,
It cuts the lovely flower away.

2 O what is life? - 't is like the bow

That glistens in the sky:
We love to see its colors glow;

But while we look, they die:
Life fails as soon :-to-day 't is here ;

To-morrow it may disappear. 3 Lord, what is life ? — if spent with thee,

In humble praise and prayer,
How long or short its date may be,

We feel no anxious care :
Though life depart, our joys shall last
When time and all its joys are past.

C. M. 620.

MONTGOMERY. The Journey of Life. i I TRAVEL all the irksome night,

By ways to me unknown; I travel like a bird in flight,

Onward, and all alone. 2 Just such a pilgrimage is life;

Hurried from stage to stage, Our wishes with our lot at strife,

Through childhood to old age.

3 The world is seldom what it seems, –

To man, who dimly sees, Realities appear as dreams,

And dreams realities.

4 The Christian's years, though slow their flight

Till he is called away,
Are but the watches of a night,

And death the dawn of day.

C. M. 621. H. K. WAITE.

Journeying through Death to Life. 1 Through sorrow's night, and danger's path,

Amid the deepening gloom, We, soldiers of a heavenly King,

Are marching to the tomb.

2 There, when the turmoil is no more,

And all our powers decay, Our cold remains in solitude

Shall sleep the years away.

3 Our labors done, securely laid

In this our last retreat,
Unheeded o'er our silent dust

The storms of life shall beat.

4 Yet not thus lifeless, thus inane,

The vital spark shall lie;
For o'er life's wreck that spark shall rise,

To seek its kindred sky.

L. M.

622.

MONTGOMERY.

The Journey of Life.

1 Thus far on life's perplexing path,

Thus far the Lord our steps hath led;
Safe from the world's pursuing wrath,
Unharmed though floods hung o'er our head:
Here then we pause, look back, adore,
Like ransomed Israel from the shore.

2 Strangers and pilgrims here below,

As all our fathers in their day,
We to a land of promise go,
Lord! by thine own appointed way;
Still guide, illumine, cheer our flight,
In cloud by day, in fire by night.

3 When we have numbered all our years,

And stand at length on Jordan's brink,
Though the flesh fail with human fears,
O let not then the spirit shrink;
But, strong in faith, and hope, and love,
Plunge through the stream, — to rise above.