6 Oh when shall I in endless day,
For ever chase dark sleep away;
And endless praise with th' heavenly choir,
Incessant sing, and never tire?
OW from the altar of my heart,
Let incense-flames arise;
Assist me, Lord, to offer up
Mine evening sacrifice.
2 Minutes and mercies multiplied,
Have made up all this day;
Minutes came quick, but mercies were
More fleet and free than they.
3 New time, new favour, and new joys,
Do a new song require;
Till I should praise Thee as I would,
Accept my heart's desire.
4 Lord of my time, whose hand hath set
New time upon my score;
Thee may I praise for all my time,
When time shall be no more.
REAT God, as seasons disappear,
And changes mark the rolling year,
Thy favour still has crown'd our days,
And we would celebrate Thy praise.
2 The harvest-song we would repeat;
Thou givest us the finest wheat;
The joys of harvest we have known;
The praise, O Lord, is all Thine own.
3 Our tables spread, our garners stored,
Oh give us hearts to bless Thee, Lord,
Forbid it, Source of light and love,
That hearts and lives should barren prove.
4 Another harvest comes apace;
Ripen our spirits by Thy grace,
That we may calmly meet the blow
The sickle gives to lay us low.
5 That so, when angel-reapers come
To gather sheaves to Thy blest home,
Our spirits may be borne on high
To Thy safe garner in the sky.
Try soul, wake all thy powers;
10 praise the ever-bounteous Lord,
He calls, and at His voice come forth
The smiling harvest hours.
2 His covenant with the earth He keeps;
My tongue His goodness sing;
Summer and winter know their time,
His harvest crowns the spring.
3 Well-pleased the toiling swains behold
The waving yellow crop;
With joy they bear the sheaves away,
And sow again in hope.
4 Thus teach me, gracious God, to sow
The seeds of righteousness:
Smile on my soul, and with Thy beams,
The ripening harvest bless.
5 Then in the last great harvest, I
Shall reap a glorious crop;
The harvest shall by far exceed
What I have sown in hope.
6 Oh may the promised, blissful hour,
The welcome season come,
When all Thy servants shall unite
To shout the harvest home.
7 A joyful harvest they shall have
Who now in sadness sow;
And those shall live to sing above,
Who wept for sin below.
John Needham, 1768.
HOME, Thou fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace,
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above:
Praise the mount-oh fix me on it,
Mount of God's unchanging love.
2 Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thine help I'm come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
3 Oh to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrain'd to be!
Let that grace, now, like a fetter,
Bina my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love—
Here's my heart, oh take and seal it,
Seal it from Thy courts above.
Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, 1760.
ET hearts and tongues unite,
And loud thanksgivings raise;
'Tis duty, mingled with delight,
To sing the Saviour's praise.
When in our blood we lay,
He would not let us die,
Because His love had fix'd a day
To bring salvation nigh.
In childhood and in youth
His eye was on us still;
Though strangers to His love and truth,
And prone to cross His will.
And since His name we knew,
How gracious has He been!
What dangers has He led us through,
What mercies have we seen!
5 Now through another year,
Supported by His care,
We raise our Ebenezer here,
"The Lord has help'd thus far."
Our lot in future years,
Unable to foresee,
He kindly to prevent our fears,
Says, "Leave it all to Me."
Yea, Lord, we wish to cast
Our cares upon Thy breast,
Help us to praise Thee for the past,
And trust Thee for the rest.
John Newton, 1779.
1 ATHER of mercies! God of love!
Whose kind compassion still we prove,
Our praise accept, and bless us here,
As brought to this-another year.
2 We sing Thy goodness all divine,
Whose radiant beams around us shine;
'Tis through Thy goodness we appear
Preserved to this-another year.
3 Our souls, our all we here resign;
Make us, and keep us ever Thine;
And grant that in Thy love and fear
We may begin another year.
begin—another
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