5 The truth thou shalt impart,
May we with firmness own;
Abhorring each evasive art,
And fearing thee alone.
Light and Glory of the Word.
1 THE Spirit breathes upon the word,
And brings the truth to sight;
Precepts and promises afford
A sanctifying light.
2 A glory gilds the sacred page,
Majestic like the sun!
It gives a light to every age;
It gives, but borrows none.
3 The hand that gave it, still supplies
The gracious light and heat;
His truths upon the nations rise,
They rise, but never set.
4 Let everlasting thanks be thine,
For such a bright display,
As makes a world of darkness shine
With beams of heavenly day.
5 My soul rejoices to pursue
The steps of him I love;
Till glory break upon my view
In brighter worlds above.
1 'T WAS by an order from the Lord,
The ancient prophets spoke his word;
His Spirit did their tongues inspire,
And warmed their hearts with heavenly fire.
2 The works and wonders which they wrought,
Confirmed the messages they brought;
The prophet's pen succeeds his breath,
To save the holy words from death.
3 Great God! mine eyes with pleasure look
On the dear volume of thy book;
There my Redeemer's face I see,
And read his name who died for me.
4 Let the false raptures of the mind
Be lost, and vanished in the wind;
Here I can fix my hope secure;
This is thy word, and must endure.
The Scriptures our Light and Guide.
1 WHEN Israel through the desert passed,
A fiery pillar went before,
To guide them through the dreary waste,
And lessen the fatigues they bore.
2 Such is thy glorious word, O God;
"T is for our light and guidance given,
It sheds a lustre all abroad,
And points the path to bliss and heaven
3 It fills the soul with sweet delight,
And quickens its inactive powers;
It sets our wandering footsteps right,
Displays thy love, and kindles ours.
4 Its promises rejoice our hearts;
Its doctrines are divinely true;
Knowledge and pleasure it imparts;
It comforts and instructs us too.
5 Ye favoured lands, who have this word! Ye saints, who feel its saving power! Unite your tongues to praise the Lord And his distinguished grace adore
1 WHAT is the chaff, the word of man,
When set against the wheat?
Can it a dying soul sustain,
Like that immortal meat?
2 Thy word, O God, with heavenly bread The children doth supply;
And those who by thy word are fed,
Their souls shall never die.
Divine Teachings and their happy Consequences.
1 BRIGHT Source of intellectual rays,
Father of spirits and of grace,
O dart, with energy unknown,
Celestial beamings from thy throne.
2 Thy sacred book we would survey,
Enlightened with that heavenly day;
And ask thy Spirit with the word,
To teach our souls to know the Lord.
3 So shall our children learn the road
That leads them to their fathers' God;
And, formed by lessons so divine,
Shall infant minds with knowledge shine
4 So shall the haughtiest soul submit,
With children placed at Jesus' feet;
The rising swell of pride shall cease,
And thy sweet voice be heard in
1 COME, blessed Spirit, source of light,
Whose power and grace are unconfined,
Dispel the gloomy shades of night,
The thicker darkness of the mind.
2 To mine illumined eyes display
The glorious truth thy word reveals;
Cause me to run the heavenly way;
The book unfold, unloose the seals.
3 Thine inward teachings make me know,
The mysteries of redeeming love,
The emptiness of things below,
The excellence of things above.
4 While through this dubious maze I stray,
Spread, like the sun, thy beams abroad,
To show the dangers of the way,
And guide my feeble steps to God.
The Seed of the Word.
1 LORD of the harvest, God of grace,
Send down thy heavenly rain:
In vain we plant without thine aid,
And water too in vain.
2 May no vain thoughts, those birds of prey,
Defraud us of our gain;
Nor anxious cares, those baleful thorns,
Choke up the precious grain.
3 Ne'er may our hearts be like the rock,
Where but the blade can spring,
Which, scorched with heat, becomes by noon
A dead, a useless thing.
4 Let not the joys thy gospel gives
A transient rapture prove;
Nor may the world by smiles and frowns
Our faith and hope remove.
5 But may our hearts, like fertile soil,
Receive the heavenly word;
So shall our fair and ripened fruits
Their hundred fold afford.
The Seed of the Word.
1 O God, by whom the seed is given,
By whom the harvest blest;
Whose word, like manna showered from heaven, Is planted in our breast;
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