5 For creation's blessed light,,
Praise to Thee, Thou God of might!
Seraph-strains Thy name should bless
For the Sun of Righteousness!
1 CHRIST to the young man said: "Yet one thing more,
If thou wouldst perfect be;
Sell all thou hast and give it to the poor,
And come and follow me!"
2 Within this temple, Christ again, unseen,
Those sacred words has said:
And his invisible hands to-day have been
Laid on a young man's head.
3 And evermore beside him on his way, The unseen Christ shall move,
That he may lean upon his arm and say,
"Dost thou, dear Lord, approve?"
4 Beside him at the marriage feast shall be,
To make the scene more fair;
Beside him in the dark Gethsemane
Of pain and midnight prayer.
O holy trust! O endless sense of rest!
Like the beloved John,
To lay his head upon the Saviour's breast,
And thus to journey on!
1 LORD! whom winds and seas obey,
Guide us through the watery way;
In the hollow of Thy hand,
Hide and bring us safe to land.
2 Father, let our faithful mind
Rest, on Thee alone reclined:
Every anxious thought repress,
Keep our souls in perfect peace.
3 Keep the friends whom now we leave;
Bid them to each other cleave;
Bid them walk on life's rough sea,
Bid them come, by faith, to Thee.
4 Save, till all these tempests end,
All who on Thy love depend;
Waft our happy spirits o'er;
Land us on the heavenly shore.
PRAYER FOR THE SAILOR.
1 WHEN the parting bosom bleeds,
When their native shore recedes,
When the wild and faithless main
Takes them to her trust again,
Father! view the sailor's woe-
Guide them wheresoe'er they.go.
2 When the lonely watch they keep,
Silent on the mighty deep,
While the boisterous surges hoarse
Bear them daily on their course,
Eye that never slumbers! shed
Holy influence on their head.
3 When the Sabbath's peaceful ray
O'er the ocean's breast doth play,
Though no throngs assemble there,
No sweet church-bell warns to prayer,
Spirit! let thy presence be
Sabbath to the unresting sea.
4 When the raging billows dark
Thunder round the storm-tossed bark,
Thou who on the whelming wave
Didst the loved disciples save,
Thou canst hear them when they pray, -
Jesus, Saviour, be their stay!
1 LORD of the wide-extended main !
Whose power the winds and seas controls,
Whose hand doth earth and heaven sustain,
Whose Spirit leads believing souls;
2 Throughout the deep Thy footsteps shine; We own Thy way is in the sea, O'erawed by majesty divine,
And lost in Thine immensity!
3 Thy wisdom here we learn to adore,
Thine everlasting truth we prove,
The wondrous heights of boundless power,
The unfathomable depths of love.
4 Infinite God, Thy greatness spanned These heavens, and meted out the skies; Lo! in the hollow of Thy hand
The measured waters sink and rise.
5 And here Thine unknown paths we trace, Which dark to human eyes appear: While through the mighty waves we pass Faith only sees that God is here.
1 THE Lord our God is full of might,
The winds obey His will;
He speaks, and in His heavenly height
The rolling sun stands still.
2 Rebel, ye waves! and o'er the land
With threatening aspect roar;
The Lord uplifts His awful hand,
And chains you to the shore.
3 Howl, winds of night! your force combine;
Without His high behest,
Ye shall not in the mountain pine
Disturb the sparrow's nest.
4 Ye nations bend, in reverence bend;
Ye monarchs, wait His nod,
And bid the choral song ascend
To celebrate our God!
FOR A CHARITABLE OCCASION.
1 WHEN long the soul had slept in chains
And man to man was stern and cold;
When love and worship were but strains
That swept the gifted chords of old-
By shady mount and peaceful lake,
A meek and lowly stranger came,
The weary drank the words he spake,
The poor and suffering blessed his name.
2 He went where frenzy held its rule,
Where sickness breathed its spell of pain;
By famed Bethesda's mystic pool,
And by the darkened gate of Nain.
He soothed the mourner's troubled breast,
He raised the contrite sinner's head,
And on the loved ones' lowly rest
The light of better life he shed.
a Father, the spirit Jesus knew
We humbly ask of Thee to-night,
That we may be disciples too
Of him whose way was love and light.
Bright be the places where we tread
Amid earth's suffering and its poor,
Until that day when tears are shed,
And broken sighs are heard, no more.
|