While gentle showers of grace divine,
Life, beauty, fragrance give :
O God of nature, God of grace!
Thy heavenly gifts impart,
And bid sweet meditation trace
Spring blooming in my heart.
1 SWEET is the time of spring,
When nature's charms appear;
The birds with ceaseless pleasure sing,
And hail the opening year:
But sweeter far the spring
Of wisdom and of grace,
When children bless and praise their King,
Who loves the youthful race.
2 Sweet is the dawn of day,
When light just streaks the sky;
When shades and darkness pass away,
And morning's beams are nigh:
But sweeter far the dawn
Of piety in youth;
When doubt and darkness are withdrawn,
Before the light of truth.
3 Sweet is the early dew,
Which gilds the mountain's tops,
And decks each plant and flower we view,
With pearly glittering drops:
But sweeter far the scene
On Zion's holy hill,
When there the dew of youth is seen
Its freshness to distill.
Spring, natural and spiritua.
1 PLEASING spring again is here;
Trees and fields in bloom appear;
Hark! the birds, with artless lays,
Warble their Creator's praise.
2 Lord! afford a spring to me;
Let me feel like what I see:
Ah! my winter has been long,-
Chilled my hopes, suppressed my song.
3 How the soul in winter mourns,
Till the Lord, the Sun, returns!
Till the Spirit's gentle rain
Bids the heart revive again!
4 O beloved Saviour! haste,
Tell me-all the storms are past:
Speak, and by thy gracious voice,
Make my drooping soul rejoice.
L. M.
612. The Year crowned with Goodness.
1 ETERNAL Source of every joy!
Well may thy praise our lips employ,-
While, in thy temple, we appear,
Whose goodness crowns the circling year.
2 While, as the wheels of nature roll,-
Thy hand supports the steady pole;
The sun is taught by thee to rise,
And darkness, when to veil the skies.
3 The flowery spring, at thy command,
Embalms the air and paints the land;
The summer rays, with vigor, shine
To raise the corn, and cheer the vine.
4 Thy hand, in autumn, richly pours,
Through all our coasts, redundant stores;
And winters, softened by thy care,
No more a face of horror wear.
5 Seasons, and months, and weeks, and days,
Demand successive songs of praise;
Still be the cheerful homage paid,
With morning-light and evening-shade.
Summer and Harvest.
1 TO praise the ever-bounteous Lord,
My soul! wake all thy powers:
He calls-and at his voice come forth
The smiling harvest-hours.
2 His covenant with the earth he keeps;
My tongue! his goodness sing;
Summer and winter know their time-
The harvest crowns the spring.
3 Well-pleased the husbandmen behold
The waving yellow crop;
With joy they bear the sheaves away,
And sow again in hope.
4 Thus teach me, gracious God! to sow
The seeds of righteousness;
Smile on my soul, and, with thy beams
The ripening harvest bless.
Seed-time and Harvest.
1 FOUNTAIN of mercy, God of love!
How rich thy bounties are;
The changing seasons, as they move,
Proclaim thy constant care.
2 When, in the bosom of the earth,
The sower hid the grain,
Thy goodness marked its secret birth,
And sent the early rain.
3 The spring's sweet influence, Lord! was thineThe plants in beauty grew;
Thou gav'st refulgent suns to shine,
And soft refreshing dew.
4 These varied mercies, from above,
Matured the swelling grain:
A kindly harvest crowns thy love,
And plenty fills the plain.
5 We own and bless thy gracious sway-
Thy hand all nature hails :
Seed-time nor harvest, night nor day,
Summer nor winter, fails.
Fruitful Seasons from God.
10 THOU who givest all their food!-
Causing thy sun to shine
Upon the evil and the good,-
Earth's teeming stores are thine.
2 Thy covenant to man secures
The harvest of his toil;
Thy faithful word, while earth endures,
With plenty clothes the soil.
3 The wintry frost, the flowery prime,
Alike thy laws obey:
Each herb and blossom knows its time,
And feels the quickening ray.
4 Revolving seasons still proclaim
Thine all-sustaining word:
Seed-time and harvest speak thy name,-
The promise-keeping Lord.
1 AWAKE, ye saints! and raise your eyes,
And raise your voices high;
Awake, and praise that sovereign love
That shows salvation nigh.
2 On all the wings of time it flies,
Each moment brings it near;
Then welcome each declining day,
Welcome each closing year.
3 Not many years their rounds shall run,
Nor many mornings rise,
Ere all its glories stand revealed
To our admiring eyes.
4 Ye wheels of nature! speed your course; Ye mortal powers! decay;
Fast as ye bring the night of death,
Ye bring eternal day.
Time Short-Man frail.
1 THEE we adore, eternal Name!
And humbly own to thee,
How feeble is our mortal frame,
What dying worms are we!
2 The year rolls round, and steals away
The breath that first it gave;
Whate'er we do, where'er we be,
We'er traveling to the grave.
3 Good God! on what a slender thread
Hang everlasting things?
Th' eternal state of all the dead,
Upon life's feeble strings.
4 Infinite joy, or endless wo,
Attends on every breath,-
And yet how unconcerned we go,
Upon the brink of death!
5 Waken, O Lord! onr drowsy sense,
To walk this dangerous road;
And if our souls are hurried hence,
May they be found with God.
Death and Burial of Saints.
1 UNVEIL thy bosom, faithful tomb!
Take this new treasure to thy trust,
And give these sacred relics room
To seek a slumber in the dust.
2 Nor pain, nor grief, nor anxious fear,
Invade thy bounds;-no mortal woes
Can reach the peaceful sleeper here,
While angels watch the soft repose.
3 So Jesus slept ;-God's dying Son
Passed through the grave, and blessed the bed: Rest here, blest saint!-till, from his throne, The morning break, and pierce the shade. 4 Break from his throne, illustrious morn! Attend, O earth! his sovereign word; Restore thy trust;-a glorious form Shall then arise to meet the Lord.
8s and 7s. Mourners Comforted.
1 CEASE, ye mourners! cease to languish,
O'er the grave of those you love;
Pain, and death, and night, and anguish,
Enter not the world above.
2 While our silent steps are straying,
Lonely through night's deepening shade,
Glory's brightest beams are playing
Round th' immortal spirit's head.
3 Light and peace at once deriving,
From the hand of God most high,
In his glorious presence living,
They shall never-never die.
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