Mine to chide me when I rove;
Mine to show a Saviour's love;
Mine thou art to guide and guard;
Mine to punish or reward;
3 Mine to comfort in distress,
Suffering in this wilderness;
Mine to show, by living faith,
Man can triumph over death;
4 Mine to tell of joys to come,
And the rebel sinner's doom:
O thou holy book divine!
Precious treasure, thou art mine!
BOOK of grace, and book of glory!
to age and youth;
Wondrous in thy sacred story,
Bright, bright with truth.
2 Book of love! in accents tender,
Speaking unto such as we;
May it tead us, Lord, to render
All, all to thee.
3 Book of hope! the spirit sighing,
Consolation finds in thee;
As it hears the Saviour crying-
"Come, come to me."
4 Book of life! when we reposing,
Bid farewell to friends we love,
Give us for the life then closing,
Life, life above.
22 The word more precious than gold. P. M. PRECIOUS Bible! what a treasure
Does the word of God afford!
All I want for life or pleasure,
Food and med'cine, shield and sword:
Let the world account me poor,
Having this I need no more.
2 Food to which the world's a stranger,
Here my hungry soul enjoys;
Of excess there is no danger,
Though it fills, it never cloys:
On a dying Christ I feed,
He is meat and drink indeed!
3 When my faith is faint and sickly,
Or when Satan wounds my mind,
Cordials to revive me quickly,
Healing med'cines here I find:
To the promises I flee,
Each affords a remedy.
4 In the hour of dark temptation,
Satan can not make me yield;
For the word of consolation
Is to me a mighty shield:
While the scripture truths are sure,
From his malice I'm secure.
5 Vain his threats to overcome me,
When I take the Spirit's sword;
Then, with ease, I drive him from me;
Satan trembles at the word:
"T is a sword for conquest made,
Keen the edge, and strong the blade.
6 Shall I envy, then, the miser,
Doating on his golden store?
Sure I am, or should be, wiser;
I am rich, 't is he is poor:
Jesus gives me in his word,
Food and med'cine, shield and sword
[OW painfully pleasing the fond recollection
Of youthful connections and innocent joy,
When bless'd with parental advice and affection,
Surrounded with mercies-with peace from on high !
I still view the chairs of my father and mother,
The seats of their offspring as ranged on each hand;.
And that richest of books, which excell'd ev'ry other,
The family Bible that lay on the stand:
The old-fashion'd Bible, the dear, blessed Bible,
The family Bible that lay on the stand.
That Bible, the volume of God's inspiration,
At morn and at ev'ning could yield us delight;
And the pray'r of our sire was a sweet invocation
For mercy by day and for safety thro' night;
Our hymn of thanksgiving with harmony swelling,
All warm from the heart of the family band,
Has rais'd us from earth to that rapturous dwelling
Describ'd in the Bible that lay on the stand;
The old-fashion' Bible, the dear, blessed Bible,
The family Bible that lay on the stand.
3 Ye scenes of tranquillity long have we parted,
My hopes almost gone and my parents no more,
In sorrow and sadness I live broken-hearted,
And wander unknown on a far-distant shore;
Yet how can I doubt a dear Saviour's protection,
Forgetful of gifts from his bountiful hand!
O let me with patience receive his correction,
And think of the Bible that lay on the stand:
The old-fashion'd Bible, the dear, blessed Bible,
The family Bible that lay on the stand.
GOD: HIS BEING AND PERFECTIONS
PRAISE ye the Lord! 't is good to raise
hearts and voices in is praise:
His nature and his works invite"
To make this duty our delight.
2 Great is the Lord! and great his might,
And all his glories infinite:
His wisdom vast, and knows no bound,
A deep where all our thoughts are drown'd..
He loves the meek, rewards the just,
Humbles the wicked in the dust,
Melts and subdues the stubborn soul,
And makes the broken spirit whole.
4 His saints are precious in his sight;
He views his children with delight;
He sees their hope, he knows their fear,
Approves, and loves his image there
RE mountains reared their forms subline, Or heaven and earth in order stood, Before the birth of ancient time,
From everlasting thou art God.
2 A thousand ages, in their flight,
With thee are as a fleeting day;
Past, present, future, to thy sight
At once their various scenes display.
3 But our brief life's a shadowy dream,
A passing thought, that soon is o'er,
That fades with morning's earliest beam,
And fills the musing mind no more.
4 To us, O Lord, the wisdom give
Each passing moment so to spend, That we at length with thee may live, Where life and bliss shall never end.
26 "How unsearchable are thy judgments." I.. M.
LORD, my weak thought in vain would climb
To search the starry vault profound:
In vain would wing her flight sublime,
To find creation's outmost bound.
2 But weaker, et that thought must prove
To search thy great eternal plan,-
Thy sovereign counsels, born of love
Long ages ere the world began.
3 When my dim reason would demand
Why that, or this, thou dost ordain,
By some vast deep I seem to stund,
Whose secrets I must ask ir vain.
4 When doubts disturb my troubled breast,
And all is dark as night to me,
Here, as on solid rock, I rest;
That so it seemeth good to thee.
Be this my joy, that evermore
Thor. rulest all things at thy will;
Thy sovereign wisdom I adore,
And calmly, sweetly, trust thee still.
ATHER of spirits, nature's God! Our inmost thoughts are known to thee: Thou, Lord, canst hear each idle word, And every private action see.
2 Could we, on morning's swiftest wings, Pursue our flight through trackless air, Or dive beneath deep ocean's springs,
Thy presence still would meet us there. 3 In vain may guilt attempt to fly,
Concealed beneath the pall of night;
One glance from thy all-piercing eye
Can kindle darkness into light.
4 Search thou our hearts, and there destroy
Each evil thought, each secret sin,
And fit us for those realms of joy,
Where naught impure shall enter in.
JHis robes are light and majest;
EHOVAH reigns; his tl rone is high;
His glory shines with beams so bright,
No mortal can sustain the sight.
2 His terrors keep the world in awe;
His justice guards his holy law;
His love reveals a smiling face;
His truta an nromise seal the grace.
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