OH FOR THE WINGS OF FAITH AND LOVE. Mrs. ANNE Steele. Ο H for the wings of faith and love, To bear my thoughts and hopes above These little scenes of care! Above these gloomy mists which rise, And pain my heart, and cloud my eyes, To see the dawn of heavenly day, and breathe celes tial air. Yet higher would I stretch my flight, With never-fading lustre, shine o'er all the blissful plains. Ten thousand times ten thousand tongues And tune the golden lyre To Jesus, their exalted Lord; Dear name, how loved, and how adored! His charms awake the heavenly strain, and every note inspire. No short-lived pleasure there beguiles, But perfect bliss forever smiles, With undeclining ray; Thither my thoughts would fain ascend, But, ah! to dust and earth they bend, Fettered with empty vanities, and chained to lifeless clay. Dear Lord, and shall I ever be So far from bliss, so far from Thee, An exile from the sky? Oh break these chains, my wishes fire, And upward bid my heart aspire ; Without Thy aid I cannot rise; oh give to fly! me wings THY PRESENCE BEAMS ETERNAL DAY. Mrs. ANNE STEELE. HOULD nature's charms, to please the eye, SHOUL In sweet assemblage join, All nature's charms would droop and die, Jesus, compared with Thine. Vain were her fairest beams displayed, Even brightness languishes to shade, And beauty is no more. But ah, how far from mortal sight A veil of interposing night His radiant face conceals. Oh could my longing spirit rise Thy presence beams eternal day O'er all the blissful place; Who would not drop this load of clay And die to see Thy face? TO JESUS THE CROWN OF MY HOPE. WILLIAM COWPER. TO Jesus, the crown of my hope! My soul is in haste to be gone; Oh bear me, ye cherubim, up, My Saviour, whom absent I love, All glory, dominion, and power; Dissolve Thou these bonds, that detain When that happy era begins, When arrayed in Thy glories I shine, Nor grieve any more by my sins The bosom on which I recline, Oh then shall the veil be removed, And round me Thy brightness be poured; I shall meet Him whom absent I loved, And then never more shall the fears, Or, if yet remembered above, Remembrance no sadness shall raise; Thus the strokes which from sin and from pain Will but strengthen and rivet the chain W1 WHEN YONDER GLORIOUS SKY. From the Spanish of Ponce de Leon, by J. BOWRING. HEN yonder glorious sky, Lighted with million lamps, I contemplate, To this vain mortal state, All dim and visionary, mean and desolate, Oh could my longing spirit rise Thy presence beams eternal day O'er all the blissful place; Who would not drop this load of clay And die to see Thy face? TO JESUS THE CROWN OF MY HOPE. T WILLIAM COWPER. O Jesus, the crown of my hope! My Saviour, whom absent I love, All glory, dominion, and power; Dissolve Thou these bonds, that detain When that happy era begins, When arrayed in Thy glories I shine, Nor grieve any more by my sins. The bosom on which I recline, |