Immagini della pagina
PDF
ePub

3 The earth with its store
Of wonders untold,
Almighty! Thy power
Hath founded of old;
Hath 'stablished it fast
By a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast,
Like a mantle, the sea.

4 Thy bountiful care

What tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air,
It shines in the light.
It streams from the hills,
It descends to the plain,
And sweetly distils

In the dew and the rain.

5 Frail children of dust,
And feeble as frail,

In Thee do we trust,
Nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender,
How firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender,
Redeemer, and Friend!

60 measureless might!
Ineffable love!
While angels delight

To hymn Thee above,
The humbler creation,
Though feeble their lays,
With true adoration

Shall lisp to Thy praise.

SIR R. GRANT.*

65

1H

ALLELUJAH! Raise, O raise
To our God the song of praise,
All His servants join to sing
God our Saviour and our King.

2 Blesséd be for evermore

That dread name which we adore:
Round the world His praise be sung
Through all lands, in every tongue.
3 O'er all nations God alone,

Higher than the heavens His throne;
Who is like to God most high,
Infinite in majesty?

4 Yet to view the heavens He bends;
Yea, to earth He condescends;
Passing by the rich and great,
For the low and desolate.

5 He can raise the poor to stand
With the princes of the land;
Wealth upon the needy shower:
Set the meanest high in power.
6 IIe the broken spirit cheers:
Turns to joy the mourner's tears;
Such the wonders of His ways:
Praise His name--for ever praise.

66

1

O human eyes Thy face may see;

7s.

CONDER.

L.M.

No human thought Thy form may know;

But all creation dwells in Thee,

And Thy great life through all doth flow!

2 And yet, O strange and wondrous thought!
Thou art a God who hearest prayer,
And every heart with sorrow fraught
To seek Thy present aid may dare.

3 And though most weak our efforts seem
Into one creed these thoughts to bind,
And vain the intellectual dream,

To see and know th' Eternal mind; 4 Yet Thou wilt turn them not aside,

Who cannot solve Thy life divine,
But would give up all reason's pride
To know their hearts approved by Thine.
5 So though we faint on life's dark hill,

And Thought grow weak and Knowledge
flee,

Yet Faith shall teach us courage still,
And Love shall guide us on to Thee.

T. W. HIGGINSON.

67

1

E servants of the Almighty King,
In every age His praises sing:
Where'er the sun shall rise or set,
The nations shall His praise repeat.

2 Above the earth, beyond the sky,
Stands His high throne of majesty;
Nor time nor place His power restrain,
Nor bound His universal reign.

L.M.

3 He formed the stars, those heavenly flames;
He counts their numbers, calls their names!
His wisdom's vast, and knows no bound,
A deep where all our thoughts are drowned.

4 Great is our Lord and great His might,
And all His glories infinite.

He crowns the meek, rewards the just,
And treads the wicked to the dust.

5 Behold His love: He stoops to view
What saints above and angels do;
And condescends yet more to know
The mean affairs of men below.
60 may the sons of men record

The wondrous goodness of the Lord!
How great His works! how kind His ways!
Let every tongue pronounce His praise.

WATTS.

GOD: HIS LOVE AND GOODNESS.

68

1 LOVE of God, how strong and true!
Eternal and yet ever new,
Uncomprehended and unbought,
Beyond all knowledge and all thought.
2 O love of God! how deep and great!
Far deeper than man's deepest hate;
Self-fed, self-kindled like the light,
Changeless, eternal, infinite.

3 O heavenly love, how precious still,
In days of weariness and ill!

In nights of pain and helplessness,
To heal, to comfort, and to bless.
4 0 wide-embracing, wondrous love,
We read thee in the sky above!
We read thee in the earth below,

In seas that swell and streams that flow.

L.M.

5 We read thee best in Him who came
To bear for us the cross of shame;
Sent by the Father from on high,
Our life to live, our death to die.
6 O love of God, our shield and stay,
Through all the perils of our way;
Eternal love, in thee we rest,
For ever safe, for ever blessed.

H. BONAR.

69

1 OD is love! His mercy brightens

GOD

All the path in which we rove;
Bliss He wakes, and woe He lightens;
God is wisdom! God is love!

2 Chance and change are busy ever;
Man decays, and ages move;
But His mercy waneth never :
God is wisdom! God is love!

3 E'en the hour that darkest seemeth,
Will His changeless goodness prove;
From the mist His brightness streameth:
God is wisdom! God is love!

4 He with earthly cares entwineth
Hope and comfort from above!
Everywhere His glory shineth:
God is wisdom! God is love!

5 God is love! His mercy brightens
All the path in which we rove!
Bliss He makes, and woe He lightens :
God is wisdom! God is love!

[87.

SIR JOHN BOWRING.

« IndietroContinua »