1 COME, ye that love the Lord,
And let your joys be known;
Join in a song with sweet accord,
And thus surround the throne.
2 The sorrows of the mind
Be banished from the place!
Religion never was designed
To make our pleasures less.
3 Yes, now, before we rise
To the immortal state,
The thoughts of that amazing bliss
Should constant joys create.
4 The men of grace have found
Glory begun below;
Celestial fruits on earthly ground
From faith and hope may grow.
5 The hill of Sion yields
A thousand sacred sweets,
Before we reach the heavenly fields,
Or walk the golden streets.
6 Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We're marching through Immanuel's ground, To fairer worlds on high.
LIFE, DEATH, RESURRECTION, AND ETERNITY.
God eternal, and Man mortal. Ps. 90.
1 THROUGH every age, eternal God,
Thou art our rest, our safe abode!
High was thy throne ere heaven was made,
Or earth thy humble footstool laid.
2 Long hadst thou reigned ere time began,
Or dust was fashioned into man;
And long thy kingdom shall endure,
When earth and time shall be no more,
3 But man, weak man, is born to die,
Made up of guilt and vanity:
Thy dreadful sentence, Lord, was just,
'Return, ye sinners, to your dust.'
4 A thousand of our years amount
Scarce to a day in thine account;
Like yesterday's departed light,
Or the last watch of ending night.
5 Death, like an overflowing steam,
Sweeps us away; our life's a dream,
An empty tale, a morning flower
Cut down and withered in an hour,
1 OUR God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come!
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home!
2 Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting thou art God,
To endless years the same.
3 A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night,
Before the rising sun.
4 Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
5 Like flowery fields the nations stand,
Pleased with the morning light;
The flowers beneath the mower's hand
Lie withering ere 'tis night.
6 Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home!
The steady Lapse of Time.
1 God of eternity! from thee
Did infant time his being draw;
Moments, and days, and months, and years,
Revolve by thine unvaried law.
2 Silent and słow they glide away;
Steady and strong the current flows,
Lost in eternity's wide sea-
The boundless gulf from whence it rose.
3 With it the thoughtless sons of men,
Before the rapid streams, are borne
On to the everlasting home,
Whence not one soul can e'er return.
4 Yet, while the shore on either side
Presents a gaudy, flattering show,
We gaze, in fond amazement lost,
Nor think to what a world we go.
5 Great source of wisdom! teach my heart
To know the price of every hour;
That time may bear me on to joys
Beyond its measure and its power.
The rapid Flow of Time.
1 How swift the torrent rolls
That bears us to the sea!
The tide that bears our thoughtless souls
2 Our fathers, where are they,
With all they called their own? Their joys and griefs, and hopes and cares, And wealth and honor, gone.
3 God of our fathers! hear;
Thou everlasting Friend!
While we, as on life's utmost verge,
Our souls to thee commend.
4 Of all the pious dead
May we the footsteps trace,
Till with them in the land of light
We dwell before thy face.
Scenes of Time, transient; of Futurity, endless.
1 How long shall earth's alluring toys
Detain our hearts and eyes,
Regardless of immortal joys,
And strangers to the skies!
2 These transient scenes will soon decay;
They fade upon the sight;
And quickly will their brightest day
Be lost in endless night.
3 Their brightest day, alas, how vain !
With conscious sighs we own;
While clouds of sorrow, care and pain
O'ershade the smiling noon.
4 O could our thoughts and wishes fly
Above these gloomy shades,
To those bright worlds beyond the sky,
Which sorrow ne'er invades!
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