In ev'ry pang that rends the heart, VI. With boldness therefore at the throne, Let us make all our sorrows known; And ask the aids of heav'nly pow'r, To help us in the evil hour. LIX. HEB. xii. 1,-13. I. BEHOLD what witnesses unseen encompass us around; Men once like us with suff'ring tried, but now with glory crown'd. II. Let us, with zeal like theirs inspir'd, begin the Christian race, And, freed from each incumb'ring weigh their holy footseps trace. III. Behold a witness nobler still, who trod affliction's path, Jesus, at once the finisher and author of our faith. IV. He, for the joy before him set, so gen'rous was his love, Endur'd the cross, despis'd the shame, and now he reigns above. V. If he the scorn of wicked men with patience did sustain, Becomes it those for whom he died to murmur or complain? VI. Have ye, like him, to blood, to death, the cause of truth maintain’d? And is your heav'nly Father's voice forgotten or disdain'd? VII. My son, saith he, with patient mind endure the chast'ning rod; Believe, when by affliction tried, that thou art lov'd by God. VIII. His children thus most dear to him, their heav'nly Father trains, Through all the hard experience led of sorrows and of pains. IX. We know he owns us for his sons, X. A father's voice with rev'rence we on earth have often heard The Father of our spirits now demands the same regard. XI. Parents may err; but he is wise, nor lifts the rod in vain; His chast'nings serve to cure the soul by salutary pain. XII. Affliction, when it spreads around, may seem a field of woe, Yet there, at last, the happy fruits of righteousness shall grow. I XIII. Then, let our hearts no more despond, Es Coll HEB. xiii. 20, 21. 1. FATHER of peace, and God of love! we own thy pow'r to save, That pow'r by which our Shepherd rose victorious o'er the grave. II. Him from the dead thou brought'st again, when by his sacred blood, Confirm'd and seal'd for evermore, th' eternal cov❜nant stood. III. O may thy Spirit seal our souls, and mould them to thy will, That our weak hearts no more may stray, but keep thy precepts still; IV. That to perfection's sacred height LXI. 1 PET. i. 3,-5. I. BLESS'D be the everlasting God, the Father of our Lord; Be his abounding mercy prais'd, his majesty ador'd, II. When from the dead he rais'd his Son, and call'd him to the sky, He gave our souls a lively hope that they should never die. 11. To an inheritance divine he taught our hearts to rise; 'Tis uncorrupted, undefil'd, unfading in the skies. |