3 Lost in thy greatness, Lord, I live
As in some gorgeous maze;
Thy sea of unbegotten light
Blinds me, and yet I gaze.

4 For thy grandeur is all tenderness,
All mother-like and meek;

The hearts that will not come to it
Humbling itself to seek.

5 On earth thou hidest, not to scare
Thy children with thy light;
Then showest us thy face in heaven,
When we can bear the sight.

6 All fathers learn their craft from thee;
All loves are shadows cast
From the beautiful eternal hills
Of thine unbeginning past.

54. THE FATHER OF THE LORD JESUS.

New London-Gloucester-Loughton.

1 Blessed be the everlasting God,
The Father of our Lord;

Be his abounding mercy praised,
His majesty adored.

C. M.

2 When from the dead he raised his Son, And called him to the sky,

He gave our souls a lively hope

That they should never die.

3 To an inheritance divine

He taught our hearts to rise; "Tis uncorrupted, undefiled, Unfading in the skies.

4 Saints by the power of God are kept
Till the salvation come:

We walk by faith as strangers here;
But Christ shall call us home.

55.

THE GOD OF LOVE.

St. Mirren's-St. David's-Bethany.

1 Father of peace, and God of love! We own thy power to save,

C. M.

That power by which our Shepherd rose
Victorious o'er the grave.

2 Him from the dead thou brought'st again,
When, by his sacred blood,
Confirmed and sealed for evermore,
Th' eternal cov'nant stood.

30 may thy Spirit seal our souls,
And mould them to thy will,

That our weak hearts no more may stray,
But keep thy precepts still;

4 That to perfection's sacred height
We nearer still may rise,

And all we think, and all we do,

Be pleasing in thine eyes.

56.

THE GIFT OF LOVE.
Ravensburg-Newington-Crediton.

1 Behold th' amazing gift of love
The Father hath bestowed
On us, the sinful sons of men,
To call us sons of God!

2 Concealed as yet this honour lies,
By this dark world unknown,

C. M.

A world that knew not when he came,
Even God's eternal Son.

3 High is the rank we now possess;
But higher we shall rise;
Though what we shall hereafter be
Is hid from mortal eyes:

4 Our souls, we know, when he appears,
Shall bear his image bright;
For all his glory, full disclosed,
Shall open to our sight.

5 A hope so great, and so divine,
May trials well endure;

And purge the soul from sense and sin,
As Christ himself is pure.

57.

THE RICHES OF GOD'S GRACE.

St. Stephen's-Bedford-Harborough. 1 Father, how wide thy glory shines! How high thy wonders rise!

C. M.

Known through the earth by thousand signs, By thousands through the skies. 2 Those mighty orbs proclaim thy power, Their motions speak thy skill, And on the wings of every hour We read thy patience still.

3 But when we view thy strange design
To save rebellious worms,

Where vengeance and compassion join
In their divinest forms;

4 Our thoughts are lost in reverent awe,
We love and we adore;
The highest angel never saw
So much of God before.

5 Here the whole Deity is known,
Nor dares a creature guess
Which of the glories brighter shone,
The justice or the grace.

6 Now the full glories of the Lamb
Adorn the heavenly plains,
Bright seraphs learn Immanuel's name,
And try their choicest strains.

7 O may I bear some humble part
In that immortal song;

Wonder and joy shall tune my heart,
And love command my tongue.

58. THE ETERNAL WISDOM (Pr. viii. 22.) C. M.

Tallis-Winchester Old-French.

1 Keep silence, all ye sons of men, And hear with reverence due;

Eternal Wisdom from above

Thus lifts her voice to you:

2 I was the Almighty's chief delight
From everlasting days,

Ere yet his arm was stretched forth
The heavens and earth to raise.

3 Before the sea began to flow,
And leave the solid land,

Before the hills and mountains rose,
I dwelt at his right hand.

4 When first he reared the arch of heaven, And spread the clouds on air,

When first the fountains of the deep
He opened, I was there.

5 There I was with him, when he stretched His compass o'er the deep,

And charged the ocean's swelling waves
Within their bounds to keep.

6 With joy I saw the abode prepared
Which men were soon to fill:

Them from the first of days I loved,
Unchanged, I love them still.