5 "When he poured out the sea,
And spread the flowing deep,
I gave the flood a firm decree,
In its own bounds to keep.

6 "Then come, receive my grace,
Ye children, and be wise:
Happy the man that keeps my ways;
The man that shuns them dies."

77

C. M.

Creating Wisdom.

WATTS.

1 ETERNAL Wisdom! thee we praise; Thee the creation sings;

With thy loud name rocks, hills, and seas, And heaven's high palace, rings.

2 Thy hand, how wide it spread the sky!
How glorious to behold!

Tinged with a blue of heavenly dye,
And starred with sparkling gold!

3 The noisy winds stand ready there
Thy orders to obey;

With sounding wings they sweep the air,
To make thy chariot way.

4 There, like a trumpet loud and strong,
Thy thunder shakes our coast,
While the red lightnings wave along-
The banners of thine host.

5 The rolling mountains of the deep
Observe thy strong command;

Thy breath can raise the billows steep,
Or sink them to the sand.

6 Thy glories blaze all nature round, And strike the gazing sight,

Through skies, and seas, and solid ground, With terror and delight.

7 Infinite strength and equal skill

Shine through the worlds abroad, Our souls with vast amazement fill, And speak the builder God.

78

C. M.

WATTS.

The Wisdom of God in his Works. Ps. 111.

1 SONGS of immortal praise belong
To my Almighty God;

He has my heart, and he my tongue,
To spread his name abroad.

2 How great the works his hand has wrought! How glorious in our sight!

And men in every age have sought
His wonders with delight.

3 How most exact is nature's frame !
How wise the Eternal Mind!
His counsels never change the scheme
That his first thoughts designed.

4 Nature, and time, and earth, and skies,
Thy heavenly skill proclaim;
What shall we do to make us wise,
But learn to read thy name?

5 To fear thy power, to trust thy grace,
Is our divinest skill;

And he's the wisest of our race

That best obeys thy will.

79

C. M.

WATTS.

The Wisdom of God in the Formation of Man. Ps. 139.
1 WHEN I, with pleasing wonder, stand,
And all my frame survey,

Lord, 'tis thy work; I own thy hand
Thus built my humble clay.

2 Thy hand my heart and reins possessed,
Where unborn nature grew;
Thy wisdom all my features traced,
And all my members drew.

3 Thine eye, with nicest care, surveyed
The growth of every part,

Till the whole scheme thy thoughts had laid
Was copied by thy art.

4 Heaven, earth, and sea, and fire, and wind, Show me thy wondrous skill;

But I review myself, and find
Diviner wonders still.

5 Thy awful glories round me shine;
My flesh proclaims thy praise;
Lord, to thy works of nature join
Thy miracles of grace.

80

L. M.

WATTS.

The Greatness of God. Ps. 145.

1 MY God, my King, thy various praise
Shall fill the remnant of my days,

Thy grace employ my humble tongue,
Till death and glory raise the song.

2 The wings of every hour shall bear
Some thankful tribute to thine ear,
And every setting sun shall see
New works of duty done for thee.

3 Thy truth and justice I'll proclaim;
Thy bounty flows an endless stream;
Thy mercy swift, thine anger slow,
But dreadful to the stubborn foe.

4 Thy works with sovereign glory shine,
And speak thy majesty divine;

O, let our land aloud proclaim

The sound and honor of thy name.

5 Let distant times and nations raise
The long succession of thy praise,
And unborn ages make my song
The joy and labor of their tongue.

6 But who can speak thy wondrous deeds?
Thy greatness all our thoughts exceeds;
Vast and unsearchable thy ways,

Vast and immortal be thy praise.

81

L. M.

God supreme and self-sufficient.

WATTS.

1 WHAT is our God, or what his name,
Nor men can learn, nor angels teach;
He dwells concealed in radiant flame,
Where neither eyes nor thoughts can reach.

2 The spacious worlds of heavenly light,
Compared with him, how short they fall!
They are too dark, and he too bright;
Nothing are they, and God is all.

3 He spoke the wondrous word, and, lo,
Creation rose at his command!
Whirlwinds and seas their limits know,
Bound in the hollow of his hand.

4 There rests the earth, there roll the spheres,
There Nature leans, and feels her prop;
But his own self-sufficience bears
The weight of his own glories up.

5 The tide of creatures ebbs and flows,
Measuring their changes by the moon:
No ebb his sea of glory knows;
His age is one eternal noon.

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L. M.

The Majesty of God.

DODDRIDGE.

1 YE weak inhabitants of clay,

Ye trifling insects of a day,

Low in your native dust bow down,
Before the Eternal's awful throne.

2 With trembling heart, with solemn eye,
Behold Jehovah seated high;

And search, what worthy sacrifice
Your hands can give, your thoughts devise.

3 Let Lebanon her cedars bring,

To blaze before the sovereign King,
And all the beasts, that on it feed,
As victims at his altar bleed.

4 Loud let ten thousand trumpets sound,
And call remotest nations round,
Assembled on the crowded plains,
Princes and people, kings and swains.