Then let us, Power Supreme! thy will adore,
Invoke thy mercies, and proclaim thy power.
Shalt thou thy benefits in vain bestow?
Shall we forget the fountain whence they flow?
Teach us through these to lift our hearts to thee,
And in the gift the bounteous Giver see:
To view thee as thou art, all good and wise,
Nor let thy blessings hide thee from our eyes.
WHEN the orb of morn enlightens
Hill and mountain, mead and dell;
When the dim horizon brightens,
And the seried clouds dispel;
And the sun-flower, eastward bending,
Its fidelity to prove,-
Be thy gratitude ascending
Unto Him whose name is Love!
When the vesper star is beaming
In the coronet of even;
And lake and river gleaming
With the ruddy hues of heaven; When a thousand notes are blending
In the forest and the grove,
Be thy gratitude ascending
Unto Him whose name is Love!
When the stars appear in millions
In the portals of the west,
Bespangling the pavilions
Where the blessed are at rest;
When the milky way is glowing
In the cope of heaven above,-
Let thy gratitude be flowing
Unto Him whose name is Love!
A MORNING SOLILOQUY.
SOFT slumbers now my eyes forsake,
My powers are all renewed;
May my freed spirit, too, awake
With heavenly strength endued!
Think, O my soul, could dying men
One lavished hour retrieve,
Though spent in tears, and passed in pain
What treasures would they give?
But seas of pearl, and mines of gold,
Were offered then in vain;
Their pearl of countless price is lost,
And where's the promised gain?
Lord, teach me now each good to prize,
I, dying, shall esteem;
And every pleasure to despise
I then shall worthless deem!
THE prayers I make will then be sweet indeed
If thou the Spirit give by which I
My unassisted heart is barren clay,
That of its native self no good can feel.
Of good and pious works thou art the seed,
Unless thou show to us thine own true way,
No man can find it. Father! thou must lead.
Do thou, then, breathe those thoughts into my
mind
By which such virtue may in me be bred,
That in thy holy footsteps I may tread;
The fetters of my tongue do thou unbind,
That I may have the power to sing of thee,
And sound thy praises everlastingly.
THE SAME SUBJECT.
O THOU! who taught my infant eye
To pierce the air and view the sky;
To see my God in earth and seas;
To hear him in the vernal breeze;
To know him midnight thoughts among;
Oh, guide my soul, and aid my song!
Spirit of light! do thou impart
Majestic truths, and teach my heart;
Teach me to know how weak I am,
How vain my powers, how poor my frame;
Teach me celestial paths untrod,-
The ways of glory and of God!
ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD.
ACQUAINT thee, O mortal! acquaint thee with God;
And joy, like the sunshine, shall beam on thy road,
And peace, like the dew-drop, shall fall on thy head,
And sleep, like an angel, shall visit thy bed.
Acquaint thee, O mortal! acquaint thee with God,
And he shall be with thee when fears are abroad;
Thy safeguard in danger that threatens thy path, Thy joy in the valley and shadow of death.
THERE is a heavenly liberty unsung
By poets, and by senators unpraised,
Which monarchs cannot grant, nor all the
Of earth and hell confederate take away;
A liberty, which persecution, fraud,
Oppression, prisons, have no power to bind ;
Which whoso tastes can be enslaved no more.-
'Tis liberty of heart derived from God,
Bought with his blood who gave it to mankind,
And sealed with the same token. It is held
By charter, and that charter sanctioned sure
By the unimpeachable and awful oath
And promise of a God. His other gifts
All bear the royal stamp that speaks them his,
And are august, but this transcends them all.
CHRIST THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND
THE LIFE.
THOU art the Way, and he who sighs,
Amid this cheerless waste of woe,
To find a pathway to the skies,
In thee the light of heaven shall know.
Thou art the Truth, whose steady day, Shines on through earthly blight and bloom, pure, the everlasting ray;
The lamp that shines beyond the tomb.
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