JUDGMENT.

289

1

Judgment-day.

C.M.

WHEN rising from the bed of death,

O'erwhelmed with guilt and fear,

I see my Maker face to face

O, 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:

3 When thou, O Lord! shalt stand disclosed In majesty severe,

And sit in judgment on my soul,
O, how shall I appear!

4 Prepare me, Lord, to meet that day,
Ere yet it be too late,

When I shall view these solemn scenes, And feel their awful weight.

290

1

The Judge.

AND will the Judge descend?

And must the dead arise?

And not a single soul escape
His all-discerning eyes?

2 And from his righteous lips
Shall this dread sentence sound;

S. M.

And through the numerous guilty throng Spread black despair around?

3

4

"Depart from me, accursed,
To everlasting flame,
For rebel angels first prepared,
Where mercy never came."

How will my heart endure
The terrors of that day,

When earth and heaven, before his face, Astonished, shrink away!

5 But ere the trumpet shakes The mansions of the dead,

6

Hark from the gospel's cheering sound
What joyful tidings spread!

Ye sinners, seek his grace,
Whose wrath ye cannot bear;
Fly to the shelter of his cross,
And find salvation there.

So shall the curse remove,
By which the Saviour bled;
And the last awful day shall pour
His blessings on your head.

291

The wicked Child judged.

L. M.

HOW dreadful, Lord, will be the day
When all the tribes of dead shall rise,
And those who dared to disobey

Be brought before thy piercing eyes!
The wicked child, who often heard
His faithful teachers speak of thee,
And fled from every serious word,
Shall not be able then to flee.

No teacher, then, shall bid him pray
To him, who now the sinner hears,
For Christ himself shall turn away
And show no pity to his tears.

4 Great God! I tremble at the thought;
And at thy feet for mercy bend,
That when to judgment I am brought,
The Judge himself may be my Friend.

1

3

292

Time mis-spent.

DREAD and solemn hour

A To us is drawing near;

S. M.

When we, before the throne of God,
All present shall appear.

What answer shall we give,
When God himself demands,
The uses of such times as these,
In judgment, at our hands?
And must we then confess
That all was spent in vain;

The seasons that were once our own,
But cannot be again?

This will be wo indeed:

To regions of despair

Our own neglect will sink us down,
To mourn for ever there.

HEAVEN AND HELL.

293

1

Heaven.

THERE is a land of pure delight,

Where saints immortal reign;

Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.

C. M.

2 There everlasting spring abides,
And never-fading flowers;
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
This heavenly land from ours.

3 Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dressed in living green;
So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan rolled between.

4 But timorous mortals start, and shrink
To cross the narrow sea;
And linger, shivering, on the brink,
And fear to launch away.

5 0, could we make our doubts remove,
Those gloomy doubts that rise;
And see the Canaan that we love,
With unbeclouded eyes;

6 Could we but climb where Moses stood, And view the landscape o'er;

2

3

Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood, Should fright us from the shore.

294

Heaven and Hell.

THERE is, beyond the sky,

A heaven of joy and love;

And holy children, when they die,
Go to that world above.

There is a dreadful hell,

And everlasting pains;

There sinners must forever dwell,
In darkness, fire, and chains.

Can such a wretch as I

Escape this dreadful end?

And may I hope, whene'er I die,
1 shall to heaven ascend?

S. M.