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L. M.

M. W. HALE.

The Day of Rest.

1 THIS day let grateful praise ascend To thee, our Father, and our Friend, Thee, Author of this holy light,

Thee, throned in boundless power and might. 2 0, let the sacred hours be given To truth, to duty, and to heaven; While trusting faith and holy love Rise fervent to thy throne above.

3 Grant that our earthly Sabbaths be But dawnings of eternity,

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To shadow forth the glorious rest,
The heavenly quiet of the blest.

L. M.

Improvement of the Sabbath.

BATHURST.

1 THIS day the Lord hath called his own;
O, let us, then, his praise declare,
Fix our desires on him alone,

And seek his face with fervent prayer.

2 Lord, in thy love we would rejoice,
Which bids the burdened soul be free,
And, with united heart and voice,
Devote these sacred hours to thee.

3 Now let the world's delusive things

No more our grovelling thoughts employ
But Faith be taught to stretch her wings,
In search of heaven's unfailing joy.

4 O, let these earthly Sabbaths, Lord,
Be to our lasting welfare blest;
The purest comfort here afford,
And fit us for eternal rest.

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43.

S. M.

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Sabbath Worship.

BULFINCH.

1 HAIL to the Sabbath day!

The day divine.y given,

When men to God their homage pay,
And earth draws near to heaven.

2 Lord, in this sacred hour,

Within thy courts we bend,

And bless thy love, and own thy power,
Our Father and our Friend.

3 But thou art not alone

In courts by mortals trod;
Nor only is the day thine own

When man draws near to God.

4 Thy temple is the arch

Of yon unmeasured sky;

Thy Sabbath, the stupendous march
Öf grand eternity.

5 Lord, may that holier day
Dawn on thy servants' sight;
And purer worship may we pay
In heaven's unclouded light.

S. M.

SPIRIT OF THE PSALMS

4

The Delights of the Sabbath.

1 SWEET is the task, O Lord,

Thy glorious acts to sing,

To praise thy name, and hear thy word,
And grateful offerings bring.

2 Sweet, at the dawning hour,

Thy boundless love to tell;

And when the night-wind shuts the flower,
Still on the theme to dwell.

3 Sweet, on this day of rest,
To join in heart and voice,
With those who love and serve thee best,
And in thy name rejoice.

4 To songs of praise and joy,
Be every Sabbath given;

For such will be our best employ
Eternally in heaven.

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L. M.

RAFFLES

The Hour of Prayer.

1 BLEST hour, when mortal man retires
To hold communion with his God,
To send to heaven his warm desires,
And listen to the sacred word.

2 Blest hour, when earthly cares resign
Their empire o'er his anxious breast,
While, all around, the calm divine
Proclaims the holy day of rest.

3 Blest hour, when God himself draws nigh,
Well pleased his people's voice to hear,
To hush the penitential sigh,

And wipe away the mourner's tear.

4 Blest hour! for, where the Lord resorts,
Foretastes of future bliss are given,
And mortals find his earthly courts
The house of God, the gate of heaven.

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L. M.

Devout Worship of God.

SIR J E. SMITH.

1 PRAISE waits in Zion, Lord, for thee;
Thy saints adore thy holy name;
Thy creatures bend th' obedient knee,
And, humbly, thy protection claim.

2 Thy hand has raised us from the dust; The breath of life thy Spirit gave; Where, but in thee, can mortals trust? Who, but our God, has power to save?

3 Still may thy children in thy word Their common trust and refuge see; O bind us to each other, Lord,

By one great tie,

the love of thee.

4 So shall our sun of hope arise,

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With brighter still and brighter ray,
Till thou shalt bless our longing eyes
With beams of everlasting day.

S. M.

The Sabbath Welcomed.

1 WELCOME, Sweet day of rest,
That saw the Lord arise;
Welcome to this reviving breast
And these rejoicing eyes.

WATTS.

2 The King himself comes near,
And feasts his saints to-day;
Here we may sit, and see him here,
And love, and praise, and pray.

3 One day, amid the place

Where my dear Lord hath been,
Is sweeter than ten thousand days
Of folly and of sin.

4 My willing soul would stay
In such a frame as this,

Till called to rise and soar away
To everlasting bliss.

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S. M.

Public Worship. Ps. 95.

1 COME, Sound his praise abroad,
And hymns of glory sing:
Jehovah is the sovereign God,
The universal King.

2 He formed the deeps unknown;
He gave the seas their bound;
The watery worlds are all his own,
And all the solid ground.

WATTS.

3 Come, worship at his throne;
Come, bow before the Lord ;
We are his works, and not our own:
He formed us by his word.

4 To-day attend his voice,
Nor dare provoke his rod;
Come, like the people of his choice,
And own your gracious God.

C. M.

Homage and Devotion.

1 WITH sacred joy we lift our eyes
To those bright realms above-
That glorious temple in the skies
Where dwells eternal love.

2 Thee we adore, and, Lord, to thee
Our filial duty pay;

JERVIS.

Thy service, unconstrained and free,
Čonducts to endless day.

3 While in thy house of prayer we kneel
With trust and holy fear,

Thy mercy and thy truth reveal,
And lend a gracious ear.