3 Eternity, with all its years,

Stands present in thy view;

To thee there's nothing old appears;
Great God, there's nothing new.

4 Our lives through various scenes are drawn, And vexed with trifling cares,

While thine eternal thought moves on
Thine undisturbed affairs.

5 Great God, how infinite art thou!
What worthless worms are we!
Let the whole race of creatures bow,
And pay their praise to thee.

71

L. M.

God immutable.

DODDRIDGE.

1 GREAT Former of this various frame,
Our souls adore thine awful name,
And bow and tremble, while they praise
The Ancient of eternal days.

2 Beyond an angel's vision bright,
Thou dwell'st in self-existent light,
Which shines with undiminished ray,
While suns and worlds in smoke decay.

3 Our days a transient period run,
And change with every circling sun;
And, in the firmest state we boast,
A moth can crush us into dust.

4 But let the creatures fall around;
Let death consign us to the ground;
Let the last general flame arise,
And melt the arches of the skies;

5 Calm as the summer's ocean, we
Can all the wreck of nature see,
While grace secures us an abode
Unshaken as the throne of God.

72

C. M.

God is every where. Ps. 139.

WATTS.

1 IN all my vast concerns with thee,
In vain my soul would try

To shun thy presence, Lord, or flee
The notice of thine eye.

2 Thy all-surrounding sight surveys
My rising and my rest,

My public walks, my private ways,
And secrets of my breast.

3 0, wondrous knowledge, deep and high!
Where can a creature hide?
Within thy circling arms I lie,

Beset on every side.

4 Should I suppress my vital breath,
To escape the wrath divine,

Thy voice would break the bars of death,
And make the grave resign.

5 If, winged with beams of morning light, I fly beyond the west,

Thy hand, which must support my flight, Would soon betray my rest.

6 If o'er my sins I think to draw

The curtains of the night,

Those flaming eyes, that guard thy law, Would turn the shades to light.

7 The beams of noon, the midnight hour,
Are both alike to thee;

O, may I ne'er provoke that Power,
From which I cannot flee!

73

L. M.

The all-seeing God. Ps. 139.

WATTS.

1 LORD, thou hast searched and seen me through;
Thine eye commands, with piercing view,
My rising and my resting hours,
My heart and flesh, with all their powers.

2 Within thy circling power I stand;
On every side I find thy hand;
Awake, asleep, at home, abroad,
I am surrounded still with God.

3 Amazing knowledge, vast and great!
What large extent! what lofty height!
My soul, with all the powers I boast,
Is in the boundless prospect lost.

4 O, may these thoughts possess my breast,
Where'er I rove, where'er I rest!

Nor let my weaker passions dare
Consent to sin, for God is there.

74

L. M.

WATTS.

The Same. Ps. 139.

1 COULD I so false, so faithless prove,
To quit thy service and thy love,
Where, Lord, could I thy presence shun,
Or from thy dreadful glory run?

2 If, mounted on a morning ray,
I fly beyond the western sea,
Thy swifter hand would first arrive,
And there arrest thy fugitive.

3 Or should I try to shun thy sight
Beneath the spreading veil of night,
One glance of thine, one piercing ray,
Would kindle darkness into day.

4 The veil of night is no disguise,
No screen from thy all-searching eyes;
Thy hand can seize thy foes as soon
Through midnight shades as blazing noon.
5 O, may these thoughts possess my breast,
Where'er I rove, where'er I rest!

Nor let my weaker passions dare
Consent to sin, for God is there.

75

C. M.

J. Q. ADAMS.

Ps. 139.

1 O LORD, thy all-discerning eyes

My inmost purpose see;

My deeds, my words, my thoughts arise
Alike disclosed to thee:

My sitting down, my rising up,

Broad noon, and deepest night,
My path, my pillow, and my cup,
Are open to thy sight.

2 Before, behind, I meet thine eye,
And feel thy heavy hand;

Such knowledge is for me too high,
To reach or understand:

What of thy wonders can I know?
What of thy purpose see?
Where from thy spirit shall I go?
Where from thy presence flee?

3 If I ascend to heaven on high,
Or make my bed in hell;
Or take the morning's wings, and fly
O'er ocean's bounds to dwell;
Or seek, from thee, a hiding-place
Amid the gloom of night,-
Alike to thee are time and space,
The darkness and the light.

76

S. M.

WATTS.

Wisdom. Prov. viii.

1 SHALL Wisdom cry aloud,

And not her speech be heard?
The voice of God's eternal word,
Deserves it no regard?

2 "I was his chief delight,

His everlasting Son,

Before the first of all his works,

Creation, was begun.

3"Before the flying clouds,
Before the solid land,

Before the fields, before the floods,
I dwelt at his right hand.

4"When he adorned the skies,

And built them, I was there,

To order when the sun should rise,
And marshal every star.