2 Why shrinks my soul?-in death's embrace
Once Jesus captive slept:

And angels, hovering o'er the place,
His lowly pillow kept.

3 Thus shall they guard my sleeping dust,
And, as the Saviour rose,
The grave again shall yield her trust,
And end my deep repose.

4 My Lord, before to glory gone,
Shall bid me come away;

And calm and bright shall break the dawn
Of heaven's eternal day.

5 Then let my faith each fear dispel,
And gild with light the grave;
To him my loftiest praises swell,
Who died, from death to save.

492

"We are confident."

I. WATTS.

WHY do we mourn departing friends,
Or shake at death's alarms?
'Tis but the voice that Jesus sends,
To call them to his arms.

2 Are we not tending upward, too,
As fast as time can move?

Nor would we wish the hours more slow,
To keep us from our love.

3 Why should we tremble to convey
Their bodies to the tomb?

There the dear flesh of Jesus lay,

And scattered all the gloom.

493

4 The graves of all the saints he blessed,
And softened every bed;

Where should the dying members rest,
But with the dying Head?

5 Thence he arose, ascending high,
And showed our feet the way;
Up to the Lord we, too, shall fy
At the great rising-day.

6 Then let the last loud trumpet sound,
And bid our kindred rise;
Awake! ye nations under ground;
Ye saints! ascend the skies.

Heaven alone unfading.

HOW VAIN is all beneath the skies!
How transient every earthly bliss!
How slender all the fondest ties

That bind us to a world like this!

D. E. FORD.

2 The evening-cloud, the morning dew,
The withering grass, the fading flower,
Of earthly hopes are emblems true,—
The glory of a passing hour.

3 But, though earth's fairest blossoms die,
And all beneath the skies is vain,
There is a land whose confines lie
Beyond the reach of care and pain.

4 Then let the hope of joys to come
Dispel our cares and chase our fears:
If God be ours, we 're traveling home,
Though passing through a vale of tears.

494

Psalm 17.

I. WATTS.

495

WHAT sinners value I resign;
Lord! 't is enough that thou art mine;
I shall behold thy blissful face,

And stand complete in righteousness.

2 This life's a dream —an empty show;
But the bright world, to which

go,
Hath joys substantial and sincere;
When shall I wake, and find me there?

3 Oh, glorious hour! oh, blest abode!
I shall be near, and like my God;
And flesh and sin no more control
The sacred pleasures of the soul.

4 My flesh shall slumber in the ground,
Till the last trumpet's joyful sound;

Then burst the chains, with sweet surprise,
And in my Saviour's image rise!

OH, sometimes the shadows are deep,
And rough seems the path to the goal;
And sorrows sometimes how they sweep
Like tempests down over the soul.

REF.-: Oh, then, to the Rock let me fly
To the Rock that is higher than I. :||

2 Oh, sometimes how long seems the day
And sometimes how weary my feet;
But toiling in life's dusty way,

The Rock's blesséd shadow how sweet.

REF.-: Oh, then, to the Rock let me fly,
To the Rock that is higher than I. :||

3 Oh, near to the Rock let me keep,
If blessings, or sorrows prevail;
Or climbing the mountain way steep,
Or walking the shadowy vale.

REF.: Then, quick to the Rock I can fly,
To the Rock that is higher than I. :||

496

The Tribunal. LADY HUNTINGTON.

WHEN thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come
To take thy ransomed people home,
Shall I among them stand?

Shall such a worthless worm as I,
Who sometimes am afraid to die,
Be found at thy right hand?

2 I love to meet thy people now,
Before thy feet with them to bow,
Though vilest of them all;
But, can I bear the piercing thought,
What if my name should be left out,
When thou for them shalt call?

3 O Lord, prevent it by thy grace;
Be thou my only hiding-place,
In this the accepted day;

Thy pardoning voice, oh, let me hear,
To still my unbelieving fear,

Nor let me fall, I pray.

4 Among thy saints let me be found,
Whene'er the archangel's trump shall sound,
To see thy smiling face;

Then loudest of the throng I'll sing,
While heaven's resounding mansions ring
With shouts of sovereign grace.

497

498

"That awful day."

I. WATTS.

THAT awful day will surely come,
The appointed hour makes haste,
When I must stand before my Judge,
And pass the solemn test.

2 Thou lovely Chief of all my joys,
Thou Sovereign of my heart!
How could I bear to hear thy voice
Pronounce the sound, "Depart!"

3 Jesus, I throw my arms around,
And hang upon thy breast:
Without one gracious smile from thee,
My spirit cannot rest.

4 Oh, tell me that my worthless name
Is graven on thy hands!

Show me some promise in thy book,
Where my salvation stands.

5 Give me one kind, assuring word,
To sink my fears again;

And cheerfully my soul shall wait
Her threescore years and ten.

WHEN, rising from the bed of death,
O'erwhelmed with guilt and fear,

I see my Maker face to face,
Oh, how shall I appear?

2 If yet while pardon may be found
And mercy may be sought,

My heart with inward horror shrinks,
And trembles at the thought;-