5 Seafons, and months, and weeks, and days
Demand fucceffive fongs of praise ;
Still be the cheerful homage paid
With morning light and ev'ning shade!
60 may our more harmonious tongues
In worlds unknown purfue the fongs;
And in those brighter courts adore,
Where days and years revolve no more!
HYMN 157. L. M.
The vanity and frailty of human life.
For a new gear.
1 OUR life advancing to its close,
While scarce its earliest dawn it knows,
Swift through an empty shade we run,
And vanity and man are one.
2 How many ev'n in youth's gay flower,
Brief pageants of the noon-tide hour,
Have faded in their brightest bloom,
The early tenants of the tomb!
3 O how thy chastisements impair
The human form, however fair!
How frail the strongest frame we see,
When thou doft man to death decree!
4 As when the fretting moths confume
The curious labour of the loom,
The texture fails, the dyes decay,
And all its luftre fades away.
5 God of my fathers! here, as they,
I walk the pilgrim of a day,
A tranfient gueft-thy works admire,
And inftant to my home retire.
6 O Lord of life and feafons! we
Our fole reliance place on thee:
In thee we truft with holy fear-
And blefs thee for the new-born year!
1 WHEN Abra'm, full of facred awe,
Before Jehovah ftood,
And, with an humble fervent pray'r,
For guilty Sodom su'd;
2 With what fuccefs, what wondrous grace,
Was his petition crown'd!
The Lord would fpare, if in the place
Ten righteous men were found.
3 And could a fingle pious foul
So rich a boon obtain ?
Good God! and shall a nation cry, And plead with thee in vain ? 4 Our country, guilty as she is,
Her num'rous faints can boast
See their united pray'rs afcend;
And fhall these pray'rs be loft?
3 Are not the righteous dear to thee
Now, as in ancient times?
Or does this finful land exceed
Gomorrah in her crimes?
6 Still we are thine, we bear thy name,
Here yet is thine abode :
Long has thy prefence bleft our land:
Forfake us not, O God!
7 O may our people, rulers, priests, Thy choiceft bleffings fhare;
And know thee by that glorious name,
"The God who heareth pray'r !"
HYMN 159. L. M.
Hymn in time of war.
1 While founds of war are heard around,
And death and ruin ftrew the ground;
To thee we look, on thee we call,
The Parent and the Lord of all.
2 Thou, who haft ftamp'd on human kind
The image of a heav'n-born mind,
And in a father's wide embrace
Haft cherish'd all the kindred race;
3 O fee, with what infatiate rage
Thy, fons their impious battles wage;
How spreads deftruction like a flood,
And brothers fhed their brothers' blood ♣
4 See guilty paffions fpring to birth,
And deeds of hell deform the earth;
While righteoufnefs and juftice mourn,
And love and pity droop forlorn.
5 Great God! whose powerful hand can bind The raging waves, the furious wind,
O bid the human tempeft cease,
And hufh the madd'ning world to peace.
6 With rev'rence may each hoftile land
Hear and obey that high command,
Thy fon's bleft errand from above,
"My creatures, live in mutual love!"
HYMN 160. L. M.
Hymn for a Fast.
I GREAT framer of unnumber'd worlds,
And whom unnumber'd world's adore!
Whofe goodness all thy creatures share,
While nature trembles at thy pow'r :
2 Thine is the hand that moves the spheres,
That wakes the wind and lifts the sea ;
And man, who moves the lord of earth,
Acts but the part affign'd by thee.
3 While fuppliant crowds implore thine aid,
To thee we raife the humble cry;
Thine altar is the contrite heart,
Thine incense a repentant figh.
4. But if injuftice grind the poor,
Or av'rice stain the fordid hand;
Or ftern ambition thirst for blood,
Or rude oppreffion wafte the land :
5 The God, who hears the orphan's cry,
The martyr's pray'r, and prifoner's groan,
Still lift'ning to the poor oppreft,
Would fpurn th' oppreffor from his throne. 6 Yet though enormous crimes abound, Should but a generous forrow rise; And as new troubles threaten round 'Midst wafting wars, and angry fkies 7 Should in her fober hour, our land
Confefs thy hand, and bless the rod,
Thou ftill wouldft love to be her friend,
Who lov'd to own thee as her God.
The defigns of Providence in the changes and revolutions of the world.
For a National Faft.
1 GOD, to correct the world,
In wrath is flow to rise ;
But comes at length in thunder cloth'd,
And darknefs veils the fkies.
2 His banners, lifted high,
The nations' God declare
And ftain'd with blood, with terrors mark'd, Spread wonder and despair.
3 All earthly pomp and pride, Are in his prefence loft;
Empires o'erturn'd, thrones, fceptres, crowns,
In wild confufion toft.
4 While war and woe prevail,
And defolation wide;
In God, the fov'reign Lord of all,
The righteons ftill confide.
5 Myfterious is the course
Of his tremendous way:
His path is in the tracklefs winds,
And in the foaming fea.
6 Yet, though now wrapt in clouds,
And from our view conceal'd;
The righteous Judge will foon appear,
In majefty reveal'd!
7 He'll curb the lawlefs pow'r,
The deadly wrath of man;
And all the windings will unfold
Of his own gracious plan.
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