C. P. M.

623.

Redeem the Time.

GREEN.

1 My days, and weeks, and months, and years
Fly, rapid as the whirling spheres
Around the steady pole;

Time, like the tide, its motion keeps,
Till I shall launch those boundless deeps,
Where endless ages roll.

2 Before thy throne, great God, I bow,
And humbly beg assistance now,
To know my real state:

While life, and health, and time endure,
Fain would I make my heaven secure,
Before it be too late.

3 If in destruction's road I stray,
Help me to choose that better way,
Which leads to joys on high;
My soul renew, my sins forgive;
Nor let me ever dare to live

Such as I dare not die!

4 With thee let every day be past; And when that comes, which proves my last, May glory dawn within!

Relieve me then from every doubt;

And, ere life's glimmering lamp goes out,
Let endless joys begin.

L. M.

624.

J. TAYLOR.

True Length of Life.

1 LIKE shadows gliding o'er the plain, Or clouds that roll successive on, Man's busy generations pass,

And while we gaze, their forms are gone.

2 "He lived, he died"; behold the sum,
The abstract of the historian's page!
Alike, in God's all-seeing eye,
The infant's day, the patriarch's age.

3 O Father! in whose mighty hand
The boundless years and ages lie,
Teach us thy boon of life to prize,
And use the moments as they fly,

4 To crowd the narrow span of life
With wise designs and virtuous deeds;
So shall we wake from death's dark night,
To share the glory that succeeds.

L. M.

625.

Man's Mortality.

SHIRLEY.

1 THE glories of our birth and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armor against fate;

Death lays his icy hands on kings.

2 Princes and magistrates must fall,
And in the dust be equal made,
The high and mighty with the small,
Sceptre and crown with scythe and spade.

3 The laurel withers on our brow;

Then boast no more your mighty deeds: Upon death's purple altar now

See where the victor victim bleeds!

4 All heads must come to the cold tomb;
Only the actions of the just
Preserve in death a rich perfume,

Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.

1

S. M.

626.

The Uncertainty of Life.

Doddridge.

TO-MORROW, Lord, is thine,
Lodged in thy sovereign hand;
And if its sun arise and shine,
It shines by thy command.

2 The present moment flies,
And bears our life away;
O make thy servants truly wise,
That they may live to-day.

3 One thing demands our care;
O be it still pursued,

Lest, slighted once, the season fair
Should never be renewed.

4 To Jesus may we fly,

Swift as the morning light,

Lest life's young, golden beams should die
In sudden, endless night.

L. M.

627.

Doddridge.

The Wisdom of redeeming Time.

1 GOD of eternity! from thee

Did infant Time his being draw:
Moments and days, and months and years,
Revolve by thine unvaried law.

2 Silent and swift they glide away:
Steady and strong the current flows,
Lost in eternity's wide sea,

The boundless gulf from which it rose.

3 With it the thoughtless sons of men Before the rapid stream are borne On to their everlasting home,

Whence not one soul can e'er return.

4 Yet while the shore, on either side
Presents a gaudy, flattering show,
We gaze, in fond amazement lost,
Nor think to what a world we go.

5 Great Source of wisdom! teach our hearts
To know the price of every hour,
That time may bear us on to joys
Beyond its measure and its power.

C. M.

628.

COLLYER.

Prayer for Support in Death.

1 WHEN, bending o'er the brink of life,
My trembling soul shall stand,
And wait to pass death's awful flood,
Great God, at thy command,-

2 Thou Source of life and joy supreme,
Whose arm alone can save,
Dispel the darkness that surrounds
The entrance to the grave.

3 Lay thy supporting, gentle hand
Beneath my sinking head,

And let a beam of light divine
Illume my dying bed.

L. M.

629.

BOWRING.

Light of Religion.

1 WERE all our hopes and all our fears
Confined within life's narrow bound;
If, travellers through this vale of tears,
We saw no better world beyond;

2 Did not a sunbeam break the gloom, And not a floweret smile beneath, Who could exist in such a tomb? Who dwell amid the shades of death?

3 And such were life without the ray From our divine religion given :

'T is this that makes our darkness day; 'T is this that makes our earth a heaven.

4 Bright is the golden sun above,

And beautiful the flowers that bloom,
And all is joy, and all is love,
Reflected from a world to come.

C. M.

630.

Doddridge.

The Christian's Farewell.

1 YE golden lamps of heaven, farewell,
With all your feeble light!
Farewell, thou ever-changing moon,
Pale empress of the night!

2 And thou, refulgent orb of day,
In brighter flames arrayed!

My soul, that springs beyond thy sphere, No more demands thy aid.