Life a field of battle is,
Thousands fall within our view;
And the next death-bolt that flies,
May be fent to me or you :
While we preach, and while we hear,
Help us, LORD, each one to think,
Vaft eternity is near,
I am standing on the brink.
4 If from guilt and fin fet free,
By the knowledge of thy grace;
Welcome, then, the call will be
To depart and fee thy face:
To thy faints, while here below,
With new years, new mercies come
But the happiest year they know
Is their laft, which leads them home.
IV. A new year's thought and prayer.
TIME, by moments steals away,
Firft the hour, and then the day,
Small the daily lofs appears,.
Yet it foon amounts to years:
Thus another year is flown,
Now it is no more our own;
If it brought or promis'd good,
Than the years before the flood.
2 But (may none of us forget )
It has left us much in debt;
Favors from the LORD receiv'd,
Sins that have his Spirit griev'd,
Mark'd by an unerring hand,
In his book recorded stand;
Who can tell the vaft amount, Plac'd to each of our account? 3 Happy the believing foul!
CHRIST for you has paid the wholes
While you own the debt is large,
You may plead a full difcharge:
But, poor careless finner fay,
What can you to justice pay?
Tremble, left when life is past,
Into prifon you be caft!
4 Will you ftill increase the score?
Still be carelefs as before?
Oh, forbid it, gracious LORD,
Touch their spirits by thy word!
Now, in mercy to them, fhow,
What a mighty debt they owe!
"All their unbelief fubdue,
Let them find forgiveness too.
5 Spar'd to fee another year,
Let thy bleffing meet us here;
Come, thy dying work revive,
Bid thy drooping garden thrive:
Sun of righteousness arife!
Warm our hearts and bless our eyes;
Let our pray'r thy bowels move,
Make this year a time of love.
V. Death and War. 1778.
ARK! how time's wide-founding bell
Strikes on each attentive ear!
Tolling loud the folemn knell
Of the late departed Year:
Years, like mortals wear away, Have their birth and dying day; Youthful fpring, and wintry age Then to others quit the ftage. 2 Sad experience may relate What a year the laft has been! Crops of Sorrow have been great, From the fruitful feeds of fin: Oh! what numbers gay and blithe, Fell by death's unfparing fcythe? While they thought the world their own, Suddenly he mow'd them down.
3 See how war, with dreadful ftride,
Marches at the LORD's command d;
Spreading defolation wide,
Thro' a once much-favoured land:
War, with heart and arms of steel,
Preys on thousands at a meal;
Daily drinking human gore,
Still he thirfts and calls for more.
4 If the GoD whom we provoke,
Hither fhould his way direct;
What a fin-avenging stroke
May a land like this expect!
They who now fecurely fleep,
Quickly then would wake and weep;
And too late would learn to fear,
When they faw the danger near.
5 You are fafe, who know his love,
He will all his truth perform;
To your fouls a refuge prove
From the rage of ev'ry form:
But we tremble for the youth;
Teach them, LORD, thy faving truth;
Join them to thy faithful few,
Be to them a refuge too.
VI. Earthly prospects deceitful.
FT in vain the voice of truth,
Solemnly and loudly warns;
Thoughtless, unexperienc'd youth,
Tho' it hears, the warning fcorns :
Youth in fancy's glafs furveys
Life prolong'd to diftant years,
While the vaft imagin'd space
Fill'd with fweets and joys appears.
2 Awful difappointment, foon
Overclouds the prospect gay;
Some their fun goes down at noon,
Torn by death's ftrong hand away :
Where are then their pleasing schemes?
Where the joys they hop'd to find?
Gone for ever, like their dreams,
Leaving not a trace behind.
3 Others, who are spar'd awhile,
Live to weep o'er fancy's cheat;
Find diftrefs, and pain, and toil,
Bitter things instead of sweet:
Sin has spread a curfe around,
Poifon'd all things here below;
On this bafe polluted ground,
Peace and joy can never grow.
I 3
4 Grace alone can cure our ills,
Sweeten life with all its cares ;
Regulate our ftubborn wills,
Save us from furrounding fnares;
'Tho' you oft have heard in vain,
Former years in folly spent ;
Grace invites you yet again,
Once more calls you to repent.
Call'd again, at length, beware,
Hear the Saviour's voice and live;
Left he in his wrath fhould fwear,
He no more will warning give:
Pray, that you may hear and feel,
Ere the day of grace be paft;
Left your hearts grow hard as fteel,
Or this year fhould prove your last.
HYMNS before annual Sermons to young
people, on new-years evenings.
VII. Prayer for a bleffing.
NOW, gracious LORD, thine arm reveal,
And make thy glory known;
Now let us all thy prefence feel,
And foften hearts of stone !
2 Help us to venture near thy throne,
And plead a Saviour's name;
For all that we can call our own,
Is vanity and shame.
3 From all the guilt of former fin
May mercy fet us free;
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