3 Let this vain world delude no more:
Behold the gaping tomb!

It bids us seize the present hour:
To-morrow death may come.

4 The voice of this alarming scene
May every heart obey;

Nor be the heavenly warning vain,
Which calls to watch and pray.

5 Oh, let us now to Jesus fly,

Whose powerful arm can save:
Then shall our hopes ascend on high,
And triumph o'er the grave.

6 Great God! Thy sovereign grace impart, With cleansing, healing power:

This only can prepare the heart
For death's surprising hour.

327.

"Absent from the body. . . present with the Lord." 2 Cor. v. 8.

C. M.

1 IN vain our fancy strives to paint
The moment after death;

The glories that surround the saint,
When he resigns his breath.

2 Faith strives, but all her efforts fail,
To trace the spirit's flight:
No eye can pierce within the veil
Which hides that world of light.

3 Thus much, and this is all, we know ;
They are completely blest;

Have done with sin, and care, and wo,
And with their Saviour rest.

328. "To this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived.”

Rom. xiv. 9.

8's.

1 WE sing His love, who once was slain;
Who soon o'er death revived again,
That all His saints through Him might
Eternal conquests o'er the grave. [have
Soon shall the trumpet sound, and we
Shall rise to immortality.

2 The saints who now in Jesus sleep,
His own almighty power shall keep,
Till dawns the bright illustrious day,
When death itself shall die away.
Soon, &c.

3 How loud shall our glad voices sing,
When Christ His risen saints shall bring,
From beds of dust and silent clay,
To realms of everlasting day!
Soon, &c.

4 When Jesus we in glory meet,

Our utmost joys shall be complete :
When landed on that heavenly shore,
'Death and the curse shall be no more.
Soon, &c.

329. “Earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.” 2 Cor. v. 2. 7's.

1"SPIRIT, leave thy house of clay! Lingering dust, resign thy breath! Spirit, cast thy chains away!

Dust, be thou dissolved in death!"

Thus the Almighty Saviour speaks,
While the faithful Christian dies:
Thus the bonds of life He breaks,
And the ransomed captive flies.
2 "Prisoner, long detained below!

Prisoner, now with freedom blest!
Welcome from a world of wo;
Welcome to a land of rest!"
Thus the choir of angels sing,
As they bear the soul on high;
While with hallelujahs ring
All the regions of the sky.

3 Grave, the guardian of our dust!
Grave, the treasury of the skies!
Every atom of thy trust,

Rests in hope again to rise.

Hark! the judgment-trumpet calls !-"Soul, rebuild thy house of clay; Immortality, thy walls,

And eternity, thy day!"

330. "Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” Eph. iii. 15. C. M. double.

1 COME, let us join our friends above
That have obtained the prize;
And, on the eagle-wings of love,
To joys celestial rise.

Let all the saints terrestrial sing,
With those to glory gone:
For all the servants of our King,
In earth and heaven, are one.

2 One family, we dwell in Him;
One church, above, beneath;
Though now divided by the stream,
The narrow stream of death.
One army of the living God,

To His command we bow:

Part of His host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now.

3 Ten thousand to their endless home
This solemn moment fly;

And we are to the margin come,
And we expect to die:
His militant, embodied host,
With wishful looks we stand,
And long to see that happy coast,
And reach the heavenly land.

4 Our old companions in distress.
We haste again to see;

And eager long for our release
And full felicity.

Even now by faith we join our hands
With those that went before;

And greet the blood-besprinkled bands
On the eternal shore.

5 Our spirits too shall quickly join,
Like theirs with glory crowned,
And shout to see our Captain's sign,
To hear His trumpet sound.

Oh that we now might grasp our Guide!
Oh that the word were given !

Come, Lord of Hosts! the waves divide, And land us all in heaven.

DIDACTIC AND EXPOSITORY.

THE ADVENT, MINISTRY, CRUCIFIXION, RESURRECTION, AND ASCENSION OF OUR LORD.

331.“ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.”

Luke ii. 14. 7's.

1 HARK! the herald-angels sing:

66

Glory to the new-born King!
Glory in the highest heaven,
Peace on earth, and man forgiven."

2 Joyful, all ye nations, rise:
Join the triumph of the skies:
With the angelic host proclaim,
"Christ is born in Bethlehem!"

3 Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ, the Everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin's womb!

4 Veiled in flesh the Godhead see!
Hail the Incarnate Deity!

Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus our Immanuel.

5 Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.