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, While you are poor and He is King, 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 I feel I hate it too. 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?" "What shall I render to the Lord?" Is my inquiry now. To see the law by Christ fulfilled, And hear his pardoning voice, 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 Much I fasted, watched, and strove, Thus afraid to trust his grace, Down at his feet I fell: 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, Like some fair tree when summer's nigh, Beneath Emmanuel's shining face 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, LIX. TRUE AND FALSE COMFORTS O GOD, whose favourable eye Not such as hypocrites suppose, Intoxicating joys are theirs, Who, while they boast their light Lulled in a soft and fatal sleep, Were they indeed the Saviour's sheep, Be mine the comforts that reclaim 'Tis joy enough, my All in All, LX. A LIVING AND A DEAD FAITH THE Lord receives his highest praise To walk as children of the day, Not words alone it cost the Lord With golden bells the priestly vest And rich pomegranates bordered round The need of holiness expressed, And called for fruit as well as sound. Easy indeed it were to reach A mansion in the courts above, |