4 Affliction's blast hath made me learn To feel for others' woe;
And humbly seek, with deep concern,
My own defects to know.
5 Then rage, ye storms! ye billows, roar!
My heart defies your shock;
Ye make me cling to God the more,
To God, my shelt❜ring rock.
Submission under afflictive providences.
1 Naked as from the earth we came,
And rose to life at first,
We to the earth shall soon descend,
And mingle with our dust.
2 The dear delights we here enjoy,
And fondly call our own,
Are but short favours borrow'd now,
To be repaid anon.
3 "Tis God who lifts our comforts high,
Or sinks them in the grave,
He gives, and (blessed be his name)
He takes but what he gave.
4 Peace, all our angry passions then,
Let each rebellious sigh
Be silent at his sov'reign will,
And every murmur die.
5 If smiling mercy crown our lives,
Its praises shall be spread,
And we'll adore the justice too
That strikes our comforts dead.
1 Thou Refuge of my weary soul,
On thee, when sorrows rise,
On thee, when waves of trouble roll,
My fainting hope relies.
2 To thee I tell each rising grief,
For thou alone canst heal;
Thy promises can bring relief
For every pain I feel.
3 But when these gloomy doubts prevail,
I fear to call thee mine;
The springs of comfort seem to fail,
And all my hopes decline.
4 Yet, gracious God, where shall I flee? Thou art my only trust;
And still my soul would rise to thee,
Though prostrate in the dust.
5 Hast thou not bid me seek thy face? And shall I seek in vain ?
And can the ear of sov'reign grace
Be shut when I complain?
6 Thy mercy-seat is open still,
There shall my soul retreat;
With humble hope attend thee still,
And wait beneath thy feet.
Dependence on God under the loss of friends.
1 The God of love will sure indulge
The flowing tear, the heaving sigh,
When righteous persons fall around,
When tender friends and kindred die.
2 Yet not a murm'ring thought shall e'er
With these our mourning passions blend;
Nor would our bleeding hearts forget
Th' almighty, ever-living Friend.
3 Beneath a num'rous train of ills,
Our feeble flesh and heart may fail;
Yet shall our hope in thee, our God,
O'er every gloomy fear prevail.
4 Parent and husband, guard and guide,
Thou art each tender name in one;
On thee we cast our every care,
And comfort seek from thee alone.
5 Our Father God, thee have we chose,
Our rock, our portion, and our friend,
And on thy cov'nant love and truth,
Our sinking souls shall still depend.
HYMN CXLIX. C.M.
Divine mercy moderating affliction.
1 Great Ruler of all nature's frame!
We own thy power divine;
We hear thy breath in every storm;
For all the winds are thine.
2 Wide as they sweep their sounding way,
They work thy sov’reign will;
And, aw'd by thy majestic voice,
Confusion shall be still.
3 Thy mercy tempers every blast
To those who seek thy face;
And mingles with the tempest's roar,
The whispers of thy grace.
4 Those gentle whispers let us hear,
Till all the tumult cease,
And heavenly hopes and prospects rise
To sooth our souls to peace.
HYMN CL. 10s M.
God the source of light and comfort.
10 thou, whose power o'er moving worlds presides!
Whose voice created, and whose wisdom guides!
On darkling man in pure effulgence shine, And cheer the clouded mind with light divine.
2 'Tis thine alone to calm the pious breast With silent confidence, and holy rest; From thee, great God! we spring; to thee we tend ;
Path, motive, guide, original, and end.
1 Sages of ancient letter'd times!
In every age, and diff'rent climes,
For wisdom fam'd among mankind,
Withdraw your thinly scatter'd rays,
Before the broad, o'erpowering blaze
Of the supreme, eternal mind.
2 Mercy's great year, in heaven enroll'd,
By seers succeeding seers foretold,
Was now with solemn pomp unseal'd,
Light of the world, Messiah came,
In his almighty Father's name,
And immortality reveal'd.
3 Fill'd with his Father's strength he taught;
The dumb in rapture speak their thought,
The lame man bounding like the roe;
The blind look up to heaven, stern death
Resigns its spoil, and from his breath
Fierce demons shrink to shades below.
4 O works of power, O works of love, Ethereal embassage to prove,
|