In holy duties, let the day,
In holy pleasures, pass away:
How sweet a Sabbath thus to spend,
In hope of one that ne'er shall end!
HYMN 98. H. M.
AWAKE, ye saints, awake,
And hail this sacred day;
In loftiest songs of praise
Your joyful homage pay:
Welcome the day that God hath blest,
The type of heaven's eternal rest.
On this auspicious morn
The Lord of life arose;
He burst the bars of death,
And vanquish'd all our foes:
And now he pleads our cause above,
And reaps the fruits of all his love.
All hail, triumphant Lord!
Heaven with hosannas rings,
And earth, in humbler strains,
Thy praise responsive sings:
Worthy the Lamb that once was slain,
Through endless years to live and reign.
Great King, gird on thy sword,
Ascend thy conquering car;
While justice, truth, and love
Maintain thy glorious war:
This day let sinners own thy sway,
And rebels cast their arms away.
HYMN 99. C. M.
GOD, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home:
Under the shadow of thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.
Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting thou art God,
To endless years the same.
A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.
Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away:
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while life shall last,
And our eternal home.
HYMN 100. L. M.
HE God of life, whose constant care
With blessing crowns each opening
year,
My scanty span doth still prolong,
And wakes anew mine annual song.
Thy children, panting to be gone,
May bid the tide of time roll on,
To land them on that happy shore
Where years and death are known no
No more fatigue, no more distress,
Nor sin, nor hell, shall reach that place;
No groans to mingle with the songs,
Resounding from immortal tongues:
No more alarms from ghostly foes;
No cares to break the long repose;
No midnight shade, no clouded sun,
But sacred, high, eternal noon.
O long-expected year! begin;
Dawn on this world of woe and sin;
Fain would we leave this weary road,
And sleep in death, to rest with God.
WHILE with ceaseless course the sun
Hasted through the former year.
Many souls their race have run,
Never more to meet us here: Fixed in an eternal state,
They have done with all below:
We a little longer wait,
But how little, none can know.
As the wingèd arrow flies
Speedily the mark to find;
As the lightning from the skies
Darts, and leaves no trace behind;
Swiftly thus our fleeting days
Bears us down life's rapid stream;
Upward, Lord, our spirits raise;
All below is but a dream.
Thanks for mercies past receive;
Pardon of our sins renew;
Teach us henceforth how to live
With eternity in view:
Bless thy word to young and old;
Fill us with a Saviour's love;
And when life's short tale is told,
May we dwell with thee above.
HYMN 102. C. M.
S o'er the past my memory strays,
A Why heaves the secret sigh?
"Tis that I mourn departed days,
Still unprepared to die.
The world and worldly things belov'd,
My anxious thoughts employ'd;
And time unhallow'd, unimproved,
Presents a fearful void.
Yet holy Father, wild despair
Chase from my laboring breast;
Thy grace it is which prompts the prayer,
That grace can do the rest.
My life's brief remnant all be Thine;
And when Thy sure decree
Bids me this fleeting breath resign,
O speed my soul to Thee.
COMMUNION OF SAINTS.
HYMN 103. S. M.
BLEST be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Jesus' love:
The fellowship of Christian minds
Is like to that above.
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