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HYMN CXLIII. P. M.

The Christian aspiring after God.

1.

QUIT the world's fantastic joys,
Her honors are but idle toys,
Her bliss an empty shade:

Like meteors in the midnight sky,
That glitter for a while, and die,
Her glories flash, and fade.

II.

Let fools for riches strive, and toil;
Let greedy minds divide the spoil,
'Tis all too mean for ine.

Far above earth-above the skies
My bold ambitious wishes rise

To heav'n, my GoD and thee.

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Swift, as the bird, escap'd the snare,
With joyful pinions thro' the air
Flies to her native nest,
Thus from the world's delusive charms
I fly, dear father, to thy arms,
And find my wish'd-for rest.

IV.

O source of glory, life and love,
When to thy courts I mount above,
On contemplation's wings,

I look with generous disdain
On all the pleasures of the vain,
On all the pomp of kings.

V.

Thy beauties rising on my sight,
Divinely sweet, divinely bright,
With rapture fill my breast;
Tho' robb'd of all my worldly store,
In thee I never can be poor,
And must be ever blest.

H

HYMN CXLIV. P. M.
On the Day of Judgment.

I.

EAR, O ye dead! awake, arise!

The sounding clarion shakes the skies,
The awful Judge is near;

Angelic guards attend him down,
And flaming round his fiery throne
A thousand terrors glare.

II...

Pale guilt looks upwards with amaze,
She trembles while the terrors blaze,

And conscience tells her doom;

Struck with unutterable dread,
She hides again her frighted head,
And shrinks within the tomb,

III.

The proud and mighty mourning lie,
Or to the rocks and mountains fly,
To shun the burning ray:
Bold hearts that never felt a fear,
Now start at flaming vengeance near,
And melt like wax away.

IV.

In vain they fly, they wail in vain,
His thunders drive the wretched train,
Where seas of sulphur roll;
In everlasting darkness there
Dwell sorrow, pain, and mad despair,
And horror rends the soul.

V.

But ye his happy saints rejoice,
No terrors hath the Monarch's voice,
His looks no frown for you:

He comes your spirits to convey
To regions of eternal day,

To joys for ever new.

VI.

Blest of my Father! haste, he cries,
In shining triumph mount the skies,
To nobler worlds above:
There shall ye share my blissful sight,
And taste the fulness of delight,
In my eternal love.

HYMN CXLV. P. M.

On Divine Love.

.I.

God! thy boundless love we praise,

M'How bright on high its glories blaze

How sweetly bloom below!

It streams from thy eternal throne,
Thro' heav'n its joys for ever run,
And o'er the earth they flow.

II.

"Tis love that gilds the vernal ray,
Adorns the flow'ry robe of May,
Perfumes the breathing gale:
'Tis love that loads the plenteous plain
With blushing fruit, and golden grain,
And smiles o'er ev'ry vale.

III.

But in thy gospel it appears

In sweeter, fairer characters,

And charms the ravish'd breast; There love immortal leaves the sky, To wipe the drooping mourner's eye, And give the weary rest.

IV.

There smiles a kind propitious GOD,
There flows a dying SAVIOUR's blood,
The pledge of sins forgiv❜n:
There faith, bright cherub points the way
To regions of eternal day,

And opens all her heaven.

V.

Then in redeeming love rejoice,
My soul, and hear a SAVIOUR's voice,
That calls thee to the skies:
Above life's empty scenes aspire,
Scorn its dull care, and mean desire,
And seize th' eternal prize.

OUR

HYMN CXLVI.

C. M.

The vanity of Human Life.

I

UR life is but an idle play,
And varies as the wind;

We laugh, and sport our hours away,
Nor think of woes behind,

II.

See the fair cheek of beauty fade,
Frail glory of an hour;

And blooming youth, with sick'ning head,
Droop, like a dying flow'r.

III.

Our pleasures, like the morning sun
Diffuse a flatt'ring light;

But gloomy clouds obscure their noon,
And soon they sink in night.

IV.

Wealth, pomp, and honors we behold
With an admiring eye,

Like summer insects, dress'd in gold,
That flatter, shine and die.

V.

One little moment may destroy
Our vast laborious schemes;
And prove our hopes of solid joy
To be deceitful dreams.

VI.

Then rise my soul, and soar away,
Above the thoughtless crowd:
Above the pleasures of the gay,
And splendors of the proud.

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