4 So shall the visits of thy love

My soul in secret bless;

So shalt thou deign, in worlds above,
Thy suppliant to confess.

Retirement and Meditation.

1 MY God, permit me not to be
A stranger to myself and thee;
Amidst a thousand thoughts I rove,
Forgetful of my highest love.

WATTS.

2 Why should my passions mix with earth,
And thus debase my heavenly birth?
Why should I cleave to things below,
And let my God, my Savior, go?

3 Call me away from flesh and sense;
One sovereign word can draw me thence;
I would obey the voice divine,
And all inferior joys resign.

4 Be earth, with all her scenes, withdrawn;
Let noise and vanity be

gone; In secret silence of the mind

My heaven, and there my God, I find.

Faith of Things unseen.

1 FAITH is the brightest evidence Of things beyond our sight,

WATTS.

Breaks through the clouds of flesh and sense, And dwells in heavenly light.

CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES AND SENTIMENTS. 377

2 It sets times past in present view,
Brings distant prospects home,
Of things a thousand years ago,
Or thousand years to come.

3 By faith we know the worlds were made
By God's almighty word;
Abra'm, to unknown countries led,
By faith obeyed the Lord.

4 He sought a city fair and high,
Built by the eternal hands;

And faith assures us, though we die,
That heavenly building stands.

377

L. M.

Faith in God's Promises.

WATTS.

1 PRAISE to the goodness of the Lord,
Who rules his people by his word;
And there, as strong as his decrees,
He sets his kindest promises.

2 O for a strong and lasting faith

To credit what the Almighty saith!
To embrace the message of his Son,
And call the joys of heaven our own.
3 Then, should the earth's old pillars shake,
And all the wheels of nature break,

Our steady souls should fear no more
Than solid rocks when billows roar.

4 Our everlasting hopes arise

Above the ruinable skies,

Where the eternal Builder reigns,

And his own courts his power sustains.

378

L. M.

WATTS.

We walk by Faith, not by Sight.

1 "TIS by the faith of joys to come

We walk through deserts dark as night; Till we arrive at heaven, our home,

Faith is our guide, and faith our light.
2 The want of sight she well supplies;
She makes the pearly gates appear;
Far into distant worlds she pries,
And brings eternal glories near.
3 Cheerful we tread the desert through,
While faith inspires a heavenly ray,
Though lions roar and tempests blow,
And rocks and dangers fill the way.

4 So Abra'm, by divine command,
Left his own house to walk with God;
His faith beheld the promised land,
And fired his zeal along the road.

379

C. M.

A living and a dead Faith.

WATTS.

1 MISTAKEN souls, that dream of heaven,
And make their empty boast
Of inward joys and sins forgiven,
While they are slaves to lust!

2 Vain are our fancies, airy flights,
If faith be cold and dead;
None but a living power unites
To Christ, the living Head.

3 'Tis faith that changes all the heart;
"Tis faith that works by love,

That bids all sinful joys depart,
And lifts the thoughts above.

4 "Tis faith that conquers earth and hell
By a celestial power;

This is the grace that shall prevail
In the decisive hour.

380

L. M.

A living and a dead Faith.

COWPER.

1 THE Lord receives his highest praise
From humble minds and hearts sincere ;
While all the loud professor says
Offends the righteous Judge's ear.

2 To walk as children of the day,

To mark the precepts' holy light, To wage the warfare, watch and pray, Show who are pleasing in his sight. 3 With golden bells, the priestly vest, And rich pomegranates, bordered round, The need of holiness expressed,

And called for fruit as well as sound.

4 Easy indeed it were to reach

A mansion in the courts above, If swelling words and fluent speech Might serve instead of faith and love. 5 But none shall gain the blissful place, Or God's unclouded glory see, Who talks of free and sovereign grace, Unless that grace has made him free.

381

C. M.

SALISBURY COL.

The Power of Faith.

1 FAITH adds new charms to earthly bliss,
And saves us from its snares;
Its aid in every duty brings,
And softens all our cares.

2 It quells the raging flames of sin,
And lights the sacred fire

Of love to God and heavenly things,
And feeds the pure desire.

3 The wounded conscience knows its power
The healing balm to give;
That balm the saddest heart can cheer,
And make the dying live.

4 Wide it unveils celestial worlds,
Where deathless pleasures reign,
And bids us seek our portion there,
Nor bids us seek in vain.

5 On that bright prospect may we rest,
Till this frail body dies;

And then, on faith's triumphant wings,
To endless glory rise.

382

L. M.

Religion vain without Love.

WATTS.

1 HAD I the tongues of Greeks and Jews,
And nobler speech than angels use,
If love be absent, I am found,
Like tinkling brass, an empty sound.