1 ETERNAL God, our wondering souls
Admire thy matchless grace-

That thou wilt walk, that thou wilt dwell
With Adam's worthless race.

2 O, lead me to that happy path
Where I my God may meet;
Though hosts of foes begird it round,
Though briers wound my feet.

3 Nor shall I through eternal days
A restless pilgrim roam;

Thy hand, that now directs my course,
Shall soon convey me home.

4 I ask not Enoch's rapturous flight
To realms of heavenly day,
Nor seek Elijah's fiery steeds
To bear this flesh away.

5 Joyful my spirit will consent
To drop its mortal load,

And hail the sharpest pangs of death
That break its way to God.

507

C. M.

WATTS.

Moses dying in the Embraces of God.

1 DEATH cannot make our souls afraid,
If God be with us there;

We may walk through her darkest shade,
And never yield to fear.

2 I could renounce my all below,
If my Creator bid,

And run if I were called to go,
And die as Moses did.

3 Might I but climb to Pisgah's top,
And view the promised land,
My flesh itself should long to drop,
And pray for the command.

4 Clasped in my heavenly Father's arms,
I would forget my breath,
And lose my life among the charms
Of so divine a death.

508

L. M.

Courage in Death. Ps. 16.

WATTS.

1 WHEN God is nigh, my faith is strong; His arm is my almighty prop;

Be glad, my heart, rejoice, my tongue;
My dying flesh shall rest in hope.

2 Though in the dust I lay my head,

Yet, gracious God, thou wilt not leave

My soul forever with the dead,

Nor lose thy children in the grave.

3 My flesh shall thy first call obey,

Shake off the dust, and rise on high; Then shalt thou lead the wondrous way Up to thy throne above the sky.

34*

401

509

S. M.

Triumph over Death.

1 AND must this body die,

This mortal frame decay?

WATTS.

And must these active limbs of mine
Lie mouldering in the clay?

2 Corruption, earth, and worms
Shall but refine this flesh,
Till my triumphant spirit comes
To put it on afresh.

3 God, my Redeemer, lives,
And often from the skies
Looks down, and watches all my dust,
Till he shall bid it rise.

4 Arrayed in glorious grace

Shall these vile bodies shine,
And every shape and every face
Look heavenly and divine.

402

510

SECTION III.

FUTURITY.

C. M.

SCOTCH PARAPHRASES.

Victory through Christ over Death. 1 Cor. xv.

1 WHEN the last trumpet's awful voice
This rending earth shall shake,

When opening graves shall yield their charge,
And dust to life awake,

--

2 Those bodies that corrupted fell
Shall incorrupted rise,

And mortal forms shall spring to life
Immortal in the skies.

3 Behold, what heavenly prophets sung
Is now at last fulfilled;

That Death should yield his ancient reign,
And, vanquished, quit the field.

4 Let Faith exalt her joyful voice, And thus begin to sing:

"O grave, where is thy triumph now? And where, O death, thy sting?"

511

L. M. 6L.

WATTS.

Life, Death, and the Resurrection. Ps. 89. 1 THINK, mighty God, on feeble man How few his hours, how short his span! Short from the cradle to the grave: Who can secure his vital breath Against the bold demands of Death, With skill to fly, or power to save ?

2 Lord, shall it be forever said, "The race of man was only made For sickness, sorrow, and the dust"? Are not thy servants, day by day, Sent to their graves, and turned to clay?

Lord, where's thy kindness to the just?
3 Hast thou not promised to thy Son,
And all his seed, a heavenly crown?
But flesh and sense indulge despair:
Forever blessed be the Lord,

That faith can read his holy word,
And find a resurrection there.

512

C. M.

WATTS.

A Prospect of the Resurrection.

1 HOW long shall Death, the tyrant, reign, And triumph o'er the just,

While the rich blood of martyrs slain
Lies mingled with the dust?

2 Let faith arise, and climb the hills,
And from afar descry

How distant are his chariot wheels,
And tell how fast they fly.