There rose the choral hymn of praise,
And trump and timbrel answered keen,
And Zion's daughters poured their lays,
With priest's and warrior's voice between.
No portents now our foes amaze,
Forsaken Israel wanders lone :
Our fathers would not know THY ways,
And THOU hast left them to their own.
But, present still, though now unseen!
When brightly shines the prosperous day,
Be thoughts of THEE a cloudy screen
To temper the deceitful ray.
And, oh, when stoops on Judah's path
In shade and storm the frequent night,
Be THOU, long-suffering, slow to wrath,
A burning and a shining light!
Our harps we left by Babel's streams,
The tyrant's jest, the Gentile's scorn;
No censer round our altar beams,
And mute our timbrel, trump, and horn.
But THOU hast said, the blood of goat,
The flesh of rams, I will not prize;
A contrite heart, an humble thought,
Are mine accepted sacrifice."
O, WHERE shall rest be found,
Rest for the weary soul?
"Twere vain the ocean-depths to sound,
Or pierce to either pole :
The world can never give
The bliss for which we sigh;
"Tis not the whole of life to live,
Nor all of death to die.
Beyond this vale of tears,
There is a life above,
Unmeasured by the flight of years;
And all that life is love:-
There is a death, whose pang
Outlasts the fleeting breath;
O what eternal horrors hang
Around 'the second death!'
Lord God of truth and grace,
Teach us that death to shun,
Lest we be banished from thy face,
And evermore undone.
Here would we end our quest;
Alone are found in Thee
The life of perfect love,—the rest
Of immortality.
GOD is my strong salvation,
What foe have I to fear?
In darkness and temptation,
My light, my help is near;
Though hosts encamp around me,
Firm to the fight I stand :
What terror can confound me,
With God at my right hand?
Place on the Lord reliance,
My soul with courage wait;
His truth be thine affiance
When faint and desolate :
His might thine heart shall strengthen,
His love thy joy increase;
Mercy thy days shall lengthen,
"The Lord will give thee peace."
THE world with stones, instead of bread,
Our hungry souls has often fed;
It promised health,-in one short hour
Perished the fair but fragile flower;
It promised riches,-in a day
They made them wings and fled away;
It promised friends,-all sought their own,
And left my widowed heart alone.
Lord! with the barren service spent,
To Thee my suppliant knee I bent ;
And found in Thee a Father's grace,
His hand, his heart, his faithfulness;
The voice of peace, the smile of love,
The bread which feeds the saints above;
And tasted in this world of woe,
A joy its children never know.
Wherefore, Soul, despair thou never! Our God is good, in every place
His love is known, His help is found; His mighty arm, and tender grace,
Bring good from ills that hem us round.
Easier than we think can He
Turn to joy our agony;
Soul, remember 'mid thy pains
God o'er all for ever reigns.
Wherefore, Soul, despair thou never ! Say, shall He slumber, shall He sleep, Who gave the eye its power to see? Shall He not hear His children weep Who made the ear so wondrously? God is God; He sees and hears All their troubles, all their tears: Soul, forget not 'mid thy pains God o'er all for ever reigns.
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