My thoughts, and dictate to my lays
An argument of endless praise.
To thee, my GOD, my joyful tongue,
Preluding, forms the grateful song;
That tongue, whose highest praise shall be
The pow'r it boasts of praising thee.
Lo! to the clouds thy truth extends,
And heav'n's stupendous height transcends,
Far as the earth's extremest bound
In all thy works is mercy found.
Enthron'd thyself above the skies,
O, bid thy fullest glory rise,
And to the earth with cloudless ray
The wonders of thy pow'r display.
21. P.M. MERRICK.
The glory of GoD in his works.
OD the heav'ns aloud proclaim
Through their wide extended frame,
And the firmament each hour
Speaks the wonders of his pow'r.
Day to the succeeding day
Joys the notice to convey,
And the nights, in ceaseless round,
Each to each repeat the sound.
Prompt, without or speech or tongue,
In his praise to form the song,
To the LORD they raise the theme,
Who of gods is GOD supreme.
4 Pleas'd to hear their voice extend Far as to her utmost end,
Earth the heav'n-taught knowledge boasts
Through her many-languag'd coasts:
5 While the sun above her head
Sees his tabernacle spread
And from out his chamber bright,
Like a bridegroom springs to sight.
6 See him with gigantic pace
Joyous run his destin'd race;
See him, ev'ry breast to cheer,
Pass through heav'n in swift career;
7 Now to farthest regions borne
Onward speed, and now return,
And to all with welcome ray,
Life and genial warmth convey.
L.M. MERRICK.
The omnipresence of God.
WHERE shall I shun, great GoD, thine
Or whither from thy spirit fly?
Aloft to heav'n my course I bear;
In vain-for thou, my GOD, art there.
2 If down to hell my feet descend,
Thou still my footsteps wilt attend:
If now, on swiftest wings upborne,
I seek the regions of the morn:
3 Or haste me to the western steep,
Where eve sits brooding o'er the deep,
Thy hand the fugitive shall stay,
And dictate to my steps their way.
Perchance within its thickest veil
The darkness shall my head conceal;
But, instant, thou hast chas'd away
The gloom, and round me pour'd the day. 5 Darkness, great GOD, to thee there's none; Darkness and light to thee are one: Nor brighter shines to thee display'd, The morn than night's obscurest shade.
BLEST in the favour of my GOD,
I speak the grace on all bestow'd,
Who guiltless hands to him can raise,
Aud offer unpolluted praise.
Thou seest, eternal judge! my breast-
Each taint of inward guilt detest;
Thine eye my innocence surveys;
Thy love with fullest bliss repays.
3 While night's thick shades around me stand,
My lamp, illumin'd by thy hand,
Pours thro' the gloom its steady ray,
And turns my darkness into day.
4 Author of good! nor sin, nor guile
The pureness of thy path defile:
On thy tried word who build their trust,
Shall find their confidence was just.
24. L.M. PARNELL.
Death a deliverance.
EATH is a path that must be trod,
If ever we would pass to GOD;
A port secure, a state of ease,
From the rough rage of swelling seas.
2 As men who long in prison dwell,
With lamps that glimmer round the cell,
Whene'er their suff'ring years are run,
Spring forth to greet the glitt❜ring sun:
3 Such joy, though far transcending sense,
Have pious souls at parting hence:
On earth, and in the body plac'd,
A few, and evil years they waste :
4 But, when their chains are cast aside,
See the bright scene unfolding wide;
Then plume the wing, and tow'r away,
And mingle with the blaze of day.
25. L.M. MERRICK.
The power and majesty of God.
TO GOD belongs th' eternal sway:
Let earth with joy his will obey:
Exult, ye isles that crown the main,
Blest in his mild auspicious reign.
2 The station'd clouds around him meet,
And darkness rolls beneath his feet;
While equity and truth combine
To rear aloft his awful shrine.
efore him walks the wasting fire;
rapt in the blast his foes expire;
While earth convuls'd, in dire dismay,
eholds the forky lightnings play:
and down, like wax before the flame, Down flows the mountain's solid frame, hat late, ambitious, met the skyor GoD, the world's great LORD is nigh! His righteous acts the heav'ns display, Tis fame from pole to pole convey, and bid the majesty divine
To ev'ry eye conspicuous shine.
His pow'r protects the pious band,
Though myriads leagu'd against them
His sov'reign might let all avow,
And reverent at his footstool bow.
CLOTH'D with majesty divine,
What pomp and glory LORD, are thine!
Light forms thy robe, and round thy head
The heav'ns their ample curtain spread.
Thy glory, fearless of decline,
Thy glory, LORD, shall ever shine ;
Thy works in changeless order lie,
And glad their great creator's eye.
Earth at thy look shall trembling stand,
Conscious of sov'reign pow'r at hand;
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