3. Be thou, O Rock of Ages, nigh!
So shall each murm'ring thought be gone!
And grief, and fear, and care shall fly,
As clouds before the mid-day sun.
4. Speak to my warring passions: "Peace;"
Say to my troubled heart: "Be still :"
Thy pow'r my strength and fortress is,
For all things serve thy sov'reign will.
5. O death! where is thy sting? where now,
Thy boasted victory, O grave ?
Who shall contend with God? or who
Can hurt whom God delights to save ?
V. THE FALL AND TEMPTATION OF
MAN.
Hymn 157. с. м.
ACKWARD with humble shame we look
How is our nature dash'd and broke
In our first father's fall!
2. To all that's good averse, and blind,
But prone to all that's ill;
What dreadful darkness veils our mind,
How obstinate our will !
3. Wild and unwholesome as the root,
Will all the branches be:
How can we hope for living fruit
From such a deadly tree ?
4. Yet, mighty God, thy wond'rous love
Can make our nature clean,
While Christ and grace prevail above
The tempter, death and sin.
5. The second Adam shall restore The ruins of the first;
Hosanna to that sov'reign pow'r
That new-creates our dust!
Hymn 158. с. м.
'ITH tears of anguish I lament,
Here at thy feet, my God,
My passion, pride, and discontent,
And vile ingratitude.
2. Sure there was ne'er a heart so base
So false as mine has been;
So faithless to its promises,
So prone to every sin !
3. My reason tells me, thy commands
Are holy, just, and true;
Tells me, whate'er my God demands
Is his most righteous due.
4. Reason I hear, her counsels weigh,
And all her words approve :
But still I find it hard t' obey,
And harder yet to love.
5. How long, dear Saviour, shall I feel
These struggles in my breast ?
When wilt thou bow my stubborn will,
And give my conscience rest ?
6. Break, sov'reign grace, O break the charm,
And set the captive free :
Reveal, Almighty God, thine arm,
And haste to rescue me.
IN, like a venemous disease,
Infects our vital blood:
The only balm is sov'reign grace,
And the physician God.
2. Our beauty and our strength are fled, And we draw near to death:
But Christ, the Lord, recails the dead
With his almighty breath.
3. Madness, by nature, reigns within,
The passions burn and rage,
Till God's own Son with skill divine
The inward fire assuage.
4. The man, possess'd among the tombs
Cuts his own flesh, and cries;
He foams and raves, till Jesus comes,
And the foul spirit flies.
Нумп 160. с. м.
I. GREAT king of glory and of
We own with humble shame,
How vile is our degen'rate race,
And our first father's name.
2. From Adam flows our tainted blood,
The poison reigns within,
Makes us averse to all that's good.
And willing slaves to sin.
3. We live estrang'd afar from God,
And love the distance well;
With haste we run the dang'rous road
That leads to death and hell.
4. And can such rebels be restor'd?
Such natures made divine?
Let sinners see thy glory, Lord,
And feel this pow'r of thine.
Hymn 161. L. M.
ET the wild leopards of the wood
Put off the spots that nature gives!
Then may the wicked turn to God, And change their tempers and their lives. 2. As well might Ethiopian slaves Wash out the darkness of their skin: The dead as well may leave their graves, As old transgressors cease to sin, 3. Where vice has held its empire long, 'Twill not endure the least controul; None but a pow'r divinely strong, Can turn the current of the soul.
4. Great God! I own thy pow'r divine,
That works to change this heart of mine;
I would be form'd anew, and bless
The wonders of creating grace.
Hymn 162. с. и.
a thousand treach'rous arts
To practise on the mind;
With flatt'ring looks she tempts our hearts, But leaves a sting behind,
2. With names of virtue she deceives
The aged and the young;
And while the heedless wretch believes.
She make his fetters strong.
3. She pleads for all the joys she brings,
And gives a fair pretence:
But cheats the soul of heav'nly things,
And chains it down to sense.
4. So on a tree divinely fair
Grew the forbidden food;
Our mother took the poison there,
And tainted all her blood,
Hymn 163. L. M.
ROAD is the road that leads to death,
And thousands walk together there;
But wisdom shews the narrow path,
With here and there a traveller.
2. " Deny thyself and take thy cross,"
Is the Redeemer's great.command!
Nature must count her gold but dross,
If she would gain this heav'nly land.
3. The fearful soul that tires and faints,
And walks the ways of God no more,
Is but esteem'd almost a saint,
And makes his own destruction sure.
VI. THE SCRIPTURES, DOCTRINES, AND INVITATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES.
Hymn 164. с. м.
HE Lord descending from above,
Invites his children near;
While pow'r and truth, and boundless love,
Display their glories here.
2. Here, in thy gospel's wond'rous frame,
Fresh wisdom we pursue;
A thousand angels learn thy name,
Beyond whate'er they knew..
3. Thy name is writ in fairest lines,
Thy wonders here we trace;
Wisdom thro all the myst'ries shines,
And shines in Jesus' face..
The law its best obedience owes
To our incarnate God!
And thy revenging justice shows
Its honours in his blood,
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