5 Let faith suppress each rising fear,

Each anxious doubt exclude;
My Maker's will has placed me here,

A Maker wise and good.
6 He to my every trial knows

Its just restraint to give; Attentive to behold my woes,

And faithful to relieve. 7 Though griefs unnumbered throng thee round,

Still in thy God confide,
Whose finger marks the seas their bound,

And curbs the rolling tide.

491
S. M.

DODDRIDGE. Wise Use of the Light, before the Night cometh. 1 THE swift-declining day,

How fast its moments fly!
While evening's broad and gloomy shade

Gains on the western sky. 2 Ye mortals, mark its pace,

And use the hours of light;
And know its Maker can command

An instantaneous night. 3 His word blots out the sun

In its meridian blaze,
And cuts from smiling, vigorous youth

The remnant of its days.
4 On the dark mountain's brow

Your feet shall quickly slide,
And from its airy summit dash

Your momentary pride.

5 Give glory to the Lord,

Who rules the whirling sphere;
Submissive at his footstool bow,

And seek salvation there. 6 Then shall new lustre break

Through horror's darkest gloom,
And lead you to unchanging light

In a celestial home.

492
L. M.

Watts. Life the Day of Grace and Hope. 1 LIFE is the time to serve the Lord,

The time to insure the great reward ;
And while the lamp holds out to burn,

The vilest sinner may return.
2 The living know that they must die,

But all the dead forgotten lie;
Their memory and their sense is gone,

Alike unknowing and unknown.
3 Then what my thoughts design to do,

My hands, with all your might pursue,
Since no device nor work is found,
Nor faith nor hope, beneath the ground.

493
L. M.

DODDRIDGE. The weeping Seed-Time and joyful Harvest. Ps. cxxvi. 5, 6. 1 THE darkened sky, how thick it lowers !

Troubled with storms, and big with showers,
No cheerful gleam of light appears,
But Nature pours forth all her tears.

2 Yet let the sons of grace revive;

God bids the soul that seeks him live ;
And from the gloomiest shade of night

Calls forth a morning of delight. 3 The seeds of ecstasy unknown

Are in these watered furrows sown;
See the green blades, how thick they rise,

And with fresh verdure bless our eyes ! 4 In secret foldings they contain

Unnumbered ears of golden grain ;
And heaven shall pour its beams around,

Till the ripe harvest load the ground.
5 Then shall the trembling mourner come,

And find his sheaves, and bear them home :
The voice long broke with sighs shall sing,
Till heaven with hallelujahs ring.

494
L. M.

CowPER. The narrow Way. 1 WHAT thousands never knew the road!

What thousands hate it when 'tis known! None but the chosen tribes of God

Will seek or choose it for their own. 2 A thousand ways in ruin end :

One only leads to joys on high ; By that my willing steps ascend,

Pleased with a journey to the sky. 3 No more I ask or hope to find

Delight or happiness below; Sorrow may well possess the mind

That feeds where thorns and thistles grow.

4 The joy that fades is not for me;
I seek immortal joys above;
There glory without end shall be
The bright reward of faith and love.

495

L. M.

The Wisdom of redeeming Time.

DODDRIDGE.

1 GOD of eternity, from thee

Did infant Time his being draw; Moments and days, and months and years, Revolve by thine unvaried law.

2 Silent and slow they glide away;

Steady and strong the current flows, Lost in eternity's wild sea,

The boundless gulf, from whence it rose.

3 With it the thoughtless sons of men Before the rapid stream are borne On to that everlasting home,

Whence not one soul can e'er return.

4 Yet while the shore, on either side,
Presents a gaudy, flattering show,
We gaze, in fond amusement lost,
Nor think to what a world we go.

5 Great Source of wisdom, teach my heart
To know the price of every hour;
That time may bear me on to joys
Beyond its measure, and its power.

391

SECTION Il.

DEATH.

496
C. M.

Logan. Frailty and Mortality of Man. 1 ALL nature dies, and lives again ;

The flower that paints the field,
The trees that crown the mountain's brow,

And boughs and blossoms yield, 2 Resign the honors of their form

At winter's stormy blast,
And leave the naked, leafless plain

A desolated waste.
3 Yet, soon reviving, plants and flowers

Anew shall deck the plain :
The woods shall hear the voice of spring,

And flourish green again.
4 But man forsakes this earthly scene,

Ah! never to return;
Shall any following spring revive

The ashes of the urn?
5 The mighty flood that rolls along

Its torrents to the main,
Can ne'er recall its waters lost

From that abyss again.