5 Take the glad burden of his name,
Ye clouds, as you arise,
Whether to deck the golden morn,
Or shade the ev'ning skies.
6 Let harmless thunder roll along
The smooth ethereal plain,
And answer from the crystal vault,
To ev'ry bounding strain.
7 Long let it warble round the spheres,
And echo through the sky;
Let angels, with immortal skill,
Improve the harmony:
8 Whilst we, with sacred rapture fir'd,
The great Creator sing,
And utter consecrated lays,
To heaven's eternal King.
HYMN 130. L. M.
Universal Praise.
NELESTIAL worlds! your Maker's name
Resound through ev'ry shining coast;
Our God a noble praise will claim,
Where he unfolds his glories most.
2 Stupendous globe of flaming day!
Praise him in thy sublime career;
He struck from night thy peerless ray,
Gave thee thy path, and guides thee there.
3 Ye starry lamps, to whom 'tis giv'n
Night's sable horrors to illume,
Praise him who hung you high in heav'n,
With vivid fires to gild the gloom.
4 Lightnings, that round th' Eternal play,
Thunders, that from his arm are hurl'd!
The grandeur of your God convey,
Blazing, or bursting on the world.
5 From clime to clime, from shore to shore,
Be the Almighty God ador'd :
He made the nations by his pow'r,
And rules them with his sov'reign word.
6 At once let nature's ample round
To God the vast thanksgiving raise:
His high perfections know no bound,
But fills the immensity of space.
HYMN 131. C. M.
God the Creator of Mankind.
of our lives, whose bounteous
First gave us pow'r to move!
How shall our thankful hearts declare
The wonders of thy love?
2 While void of thought and sense we lay,
Dust of our parent earth,
Thy breath inform'd the sleeping clay,
And call'd us into birth.
3 Thine eye beheld in perfect view
The yet unfinish'd plan;
Th' imperfect lines thy pencil drew,
And form'd the future man.
4 O may this frame, which rising grew
Beneath thy forming hands,
Be studious ever to pursue
Whate'er thy will commands.
HYMN 132. L. M.
The voice of Nature.
ALMIGHTY goodness, pow'r divine,
The fields and verdant meads display ;
And bless the band which made them shine
With various charms profusely gay.
2 For man and beast here daily food
In wide diffusive plenty grows;
And there, for drink, the crystal flood
In streams sweet-winding gently flows.
3 By cooling streams and soft'ning show'rs
The vegetable race are fed ;
And trees and plants, and herbs and flow'rs,
Their Maker's bounty smiling spread.
4 The flow'ry tribes all blooming rise
Above the faint attempts of art;
Their bright inimitable dyes
Speak sweet conviction to the heart.
5 Ye curious minds, who roam abroad,
And trace creation's wonders o'er,
Confess the footsteps of the God,
And bow before him and adore.
HYMN 133. S. M.
Praise to the Creator.
ALMIGHTY maker, God!
How wondrous is thy name!
Thy glories how diffused abroad
Through all creation's frame !
2 Nature in every dress
Her humble homage pays;
And does a thousand ways express
Her undissembled praise.
My soul would rise and sing
To her Creator too :
Fain would my tongue adore my King,
And pay the homage due.
4 In joy, O! let me spend
The remnant of my days;
And oft to God, my soul! ascend
In grateful songs of praise.
HYMN 134. C. M.
The God of Nature invoked.
HAIL, great Creator, wise and good!
To thee our songs we raise ;
Nature, through all her various scenes,
Invites us to thy praise.
2 At morning, noon, and evening mild,
Fresh wonders strike our view;
And while we gaze, our hearts exult
With transports ever new.
3 Thy glory beams in every star
Which gilds the gloom of night;
And decks the smiling face of morn
With rays of cheerful light.
4 The lofty hill, the humble lawn,
With countless beauties shine:
The silent grove, the awful shade,
Proclaim thy pow'r divine.
5 Great nature's God! still may
Our serious hours engage;
Still may our grateful hearts consult
Thy works instructive page!
6 And while, in all thy wond'rous works,
Thy vary'd love we see;
Still may the contemplation lead
Our hearts, O God, to thee!
HYMN 135. Sevens Metre.
The Perfections and Providence of God.
IFT your voice, and joyful sing
Praises to your heav'nly King;
For his blessings far extend,
And his mercy knows no end.
2 Be the Lord your noblest theme,
Who of gods is God supreme;
He, to whom all lords beside
Bow the knee, and veil their pride:
3 Who asserts his just command
By the wonders of his hand :
He, whose wisdom, thron'd on high,
Built the mansions of the sky :
4 He, who bade the wat❜ry deep
Under earth's foundations sleep;
And the orbs that gild the pole
Through the boundless ether roll;
5 Thee, O sun, whose pow'rful ray
Rules the empire of the day;
You, O moon and stars, whose light
Gilds the darkness of the night.
6 He with food sustains, O earth,
All who claim from thee their birth;
For his blessings far extend,
The same subject.
ET us with a joyful mind
Praise the Lord, for he is kind:
For his mercies shall endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.
2 Let us sound his name abroad,
For of gods he is the God:
Who by his wisdom did create
Heaven's expanse, and all its state :
3 Did the solid earth ordain
How to rise above the main :
Who, by his commanding might,
Fill'd the new-made world with light:
4 Caus'd the golden-tressed sun
All the day his course to run;
And the moon to shine by night,
'Mid her spangled sisters bright.
5 All his creatures God does feed,
His full hand supplies their need:
Let us therefore warble forth
His high majesty and worth.
6 He his mansion hath on high,
'Bove the reach of mortal eye :
And his mercies shall endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.
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