4 [When sin had sadly made,
"Twixt wrath and mercy, strife,
Our dear Redeemer dearly paid
Our ransom with his life.
Faith gives the full release;
Our Surety for us stood:
The Mediator made the peace,
And sign'd it with his blood.]
[Soldiers, your Captain own;
Domestics, serve your Lord;
Sinners, the Saviour's love make known;
Saints, hymn the incarnate Word;
The Witness sure and true
Of God's good will to men;
The Alpha and the Omega too;
The First and Last. Amen.]
6 Poor pilgrims shall not stray,
Who frighted flee from wrath:
A bleeding Jesus is the Way,
And blood tracks all the path.
Christians in Christ obtain
The Truth that can't deceive:
And never shall they die again,
Who in the Life believe.
131.
Christ, the Head of the Church.-Eph. v. 23; Isa. xliii. 2.
HEAD of the Church triumphant,
We joyfully adore thee;
Till thou appear, thy members here,
Shall thirst for greater glory.
We lift our hearts and voices,
With blest anticipation;
And cry aloud, and give to God The praise of our salvation. 3 While in affliction's furnace,
And passing through the fire;
Thy love we praise, which tries our ways,
And ever brings us higher.
We lift our hands, exulting
In thy almighty favour;
The love divine which made us thine,
Shall keep us thine for ever.
Thou dost conduct thy people,
Through torrents of temptation;
Nor will we fear, while thou art near,
The fire of tribulation.
[The world, with sin and Satan,
In vain our march opposes,
By thee we shall break through them all,
And sing the song of Moses.]
7 By faith we see the glory,
To which thou shalt restore us,
The world despise for that high prize
Which thou hast set before us.
8 And if thou count us worthy,
We each, as dying Stephen,
Shall see thee stand at God's right hand,
To take us up to heaven.
Christ, a True Friend.-Eph. ii. 4, 5.
A FRIEND there is, your voices join,
Ye saints, to praise his name!
Whose truth and kindness are divine,
Whose love's a constant flame!
2 When most we need his helping hand, This Friend is always near;
With heaven and earth at his command,
He waits to answer prayer.
3 His love no end nor measure knows;
No change can turn its course;
Immutably the same, it flows
From one eternal source!
4 When frowns appear to veil his face,
And clouds surround his throne,
He hides the purpose of his grace,
To make it better known.
5 And if our dearest comforts fall
Before his sovereign will,
He never takes away our all,-
Himself he gives us still!
6 [Our sorrows in the scale he weighs,
And measures out our pains:
The wildest storm his word obeys;
His word its rage restrains.]
The same.-Prov. xviii. 24.
ONE there is above all others,
Well deserves the name of Friend:
His is love beyond a brother's,
Costly, free, and knows no end:
They who once his kindness prove,
Find it everlasting love.
2 Which of all our friends, to save us,
Could or would have shed his blood?
But our Jesus died to have us
Reconciled in him to God:
This was boundless love indeed!
Jesus is a Friend in need!
3 Oh! for grace our hearts to soften:
Teach us, Lord, at length to love!
We, alas! forget too often
What a Friend we have above!
But when home our souls are brought,
We will praise thee as we ought.
Christ the Sinner's Hiding-place.-Isa. xxxii. 2.
HAIL, Sovereign Love, that first began
The scheme to rescue fallen man!
Hail, matchless, free, eternal grace,
That gave my soul a hiding-place!
2 [Against the God who rules the sky
I fought with hand uplifted high;
Despised the mention of his grace,
Too proud to seek a hiding-place!
2 But thus the eternal council ran,
"Almighty love, arrest that man!"
I felt the arrows of distress,
And found I had no hiding-place!
4 Indignant Justice stood in view;
To Sinai's fiery mount I flew;
But Justice cried, with frowning face,
This mountain is no hiding-place!
5 Ere long a heavenly voice I heard,
And Mercy's angel-form appear'd:
She led me on, with placid pace,
To Jesus, as my hiding-place!]
6 Should storms of seven-fold thunder roll,
And shake the globe from pole to pole,
No flaming bolt could daunt my face,
For Jesus is my hiding-place.
7 On him almighty vengeance fell,
That must have sunk a world to hell:
He bore it for a chosen race,
And thus became their hiding-place.
8 A few more rolling suns at most,
Will land me on fair Canaan's coast,
Where I shall sing the song of grace,
And see my glorious hiding-place.
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.
2 It makes the wounded spirit whole,
And calms the troubled breast;
'Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary rest.
3 Dear name! the rock on which I build; My shield and hiding-place;
My never-failing treasury, fill'd
With boundless stores of grace.
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