Our thirsting lips the sweets shall taste,
By thy blest fruit conveyed.

3 Fair morning Star, arise,
With living glories bright,
And pour on these awakening eyes
A flood of sacred light.

4 The horrid gloom is fled,
Pierced by thy heavenly ray;

Shine, and our wandering footsteps lead
To everlasting day.

L. M. [#]

HYMN 173. L. M.

Messiah.

1 GLORY to God, who reigns above,

Who dwells in light, whose name is Love; Ye saints and angels, if ye can,

Declare the love of God to man.

2 O, what can more his love commend,
His dear, his only Son to send,

That man, condemned to die, might live,
And God be glorious to forgive!

3 Messiah's come with joy behold
The days by prophets long foretold:
Judah, thy royal sceptre's broke,
And time still proves what Jacob spoke.

4 We see the prophecies fulfilled

In Jesus, that most wondrous Child:
His birth, his life, his death combine
To prove his character divine.

HYMN 174. L. M. [#]

The Branch.

1 FROM Jesse's root a Branch did rise,
Whose fragrance fills the lofty skies,
Which spreads its leaves from pole to pole,
A healing balm for every soul.

2 The sick, the weak, the halt, and blind,
In him do aid and comfort find,—
A remedy for every wound,

Or moral pain, that can be found.

3 This is the Saviour long foretold;
Hear him, ye deaf; ye blind, behold:
He's come to make his grace abound,
As far as sin or death is found.

HYMN 175. L. M. [#]
Christ the Physician.

1 DEEP are the wounds which sin has made : Where shall the sinner find a cure?

In vain, alas, is nature's aid;

The work exceeds her utmost power.

2 But can no sovereign balm be found?
And is no kind physician nigh,
To ease the pain, and heal the wound,
Ere life and hope forever fly?

3 Yes, there's a great Physician near;
Look up, my fainting soul, and live!
See, in his heavenly smiles appear
Such help as nature cannot give.

4 Sin throws in vain its pointed dart,
For here a sovereign cure is found,—
A cordial for the fainting heart,

A balm for every painful wound.

HYMN 176. P. M.

P. M. [#]

Friend kinder than a Brother.

1 ONE there is, above all others,

Well deserves the name of Friend;
His is love beyond a brother's,
Costly, free, and knows no end:
They who once his kindness prove,
Find it everlasting love.

2 Which, of all our friends, to save us,
Could, or would have shed his blood?
But our Jesus died to have us
Reconciled in him to God:

This is boundless love indeed!
Jesus is a Friend in need.

3 When he lived on earth ill-treated,
Friend of sinners was his name;
Now, above all glory seated,

He rejoices in the same:

Still he calls them brethren, friends,
And to all their wants attends.

4 O, for grace, our hearts to soften!
Teach us, Lord, like him to love :
We, alas, forget too often

What a Friend we have above :

But, when home our souls are brought,
We will love thee as we ought.

HYMN 177. C. M. [#]

Christ a chosen Servant.

1 THUS saith the Lord who built the heavens, And bade the planets roll,

Who peopled all the climes of earth,
And formed the human soul,—

2 Behold my Servant; see him rise,
Exalted in my might;
Him have I chosen, and in him
I place supreme delight.

3 On him, in rich effusion poured,
My spirit shall descend;

My truth and judgment he shall show
To earth's remotest end.

4 The progress of his zeal and power
Shall never know decline,
Till foreign lands and distant isles
Receive the law divine.

HYMN 178. L. M. [#]

First Elect of God.

1 JESUS, the Lord, transporting name!
By him the great salvation came :
Ten thousand blessings from the throne
Hath God imparted through his Son.

2 God chose him, ere the world began,
To save from sin rebellious man;
To wield the sceptre from above,
And conquer nations by his love.

3 Jehovah did his Son ordain
His first Elect, by grace to reign;
To pour salvation's light abroad,
And reconcile a world to God.

4 In thine Elect, O God, we see
Our life and immortality;

And, saved by him, a new-born race,
We shout the riches of thy grace.

HYMN 179. S. M. [#]

Mediator of a better Covenant.

1 THY Covenant, O Lord,

In all things ordered sure,
And founded on a steadfast hope,
Forever shall endure.

2 The word is given, "I will;"
And who shall let thy hand?
of eternal grace

The

purpose

By power divine must stand.

3 Israel shall know the Lord ;
The Gentiles trust in thee;

All nations, kindreds, people, tongues,
The great salvation see.

4 Thy grace, thy mercy, truth,
Demand the grateful song;

Let earth begin the blissful theme,
And heaven the strain prolong.