Inferior honours he disdains, Nor stoops to take applause from earth; The noblest creature seen below, My soul is ravished at the thought! And shout him welcome to the skies' LII. LIVELY HOPE AND GRACIOUS FEAR I WAS a grovelling creature once, I wanted spirit to renounce But God has breathed upon a worm, Wings such as clothe an angel's form, With these to Pisgah's top I fly, The Lord of all the vast domain The length and breadth of all the plain How glorious is my privilege! I stand upon a mountain's edge, Though much exalted in the Lord, LIII. FOR THE POOR WHEN Hagar found the bottle spent, A message from the Lord was sent Should not Elijah's cake and cruse His saints and servants shall be fed, "Bread shall be given them," he has said, "Their water shall be sure." Repasts far richer they shall prove To Jesus then your trouble bring, LIV. MY SOUL THIRSTETH FOR GOD I THIRST, but not as once I did The vain delights of earth to share; Thy wounds, Emmanuel, all forbid That I should seek my pleasures there. It was the sight of thy dear cross First weaned my soul from earthly things; And taught me to esteem as dross The mirth of fools and pomp of kings. I want that grace that springs from thee, Dear fountain of delight unknown, LV. LOVE CONSTRAINING TO OBEDIENCE No strength of nature can suffice How long beneath the law I lay But toiled without success. Then to abstain from outward sin Then all my servile works were done A righteousness to raise; Now, freely chosen in the Son, I freely choose his ways. "What shall I do," was then the word, "That I may worthier grow v?" "What shall I render to the Lord?" To see the law by Christ fulfilled, And hear his pardoning voice, And duty into choice. LVI. THE HEART HEALED AND CHANGED BY MERCY SIN enslaved me many years, "Where," said I, in deep distress, And make the Lord my friend?" Friends and ministers said much But my blindness still was such, Much I fasted, watched, and strove, Thus afraid to trust his grace, By a simple word he spoke, Thy sins are done away." LVII. HATRED OF SIN HOLY Lord God! I love thy truth, But, though the poison lurks within, Had I a throne above the rest, Where angels and archangels dwell, One sin, unslain, within my breast, Would make that heaven as dark as hell. The prisoner sent to breathe fresh air, Would mourn were he condemned to wear But, oh! no foe invades the bliss, When glory crowns the Christian's head; One view of Jesus as he is Will strike all sin for ever dead. LVIII. THE NEW CONVERT THE new-born child of Gospel grace, Lifts up his blooming branch on high. No fears he feels, he sees no foes, But sin soon darts its cruel sting, When Gideon armed his numerous host, Thus will he bring our spirits down, And draw our ebbing comforts low, I'hat, saved by grace, but not our own, We may not claim the praise we owe. LIX. TRUE AND FALSE COMFORTS O God, whose favourable eye Not such as hypocrites suppose, |