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To his works, all around him, his mercies extend, | Send us thy light, and arm us for the strife
His works have no number, his mercies no end;
He accepteth our thanks, if the heart do but pay;
Tho' we never can reach him, by all we can say.
How just is the duty! how pure the delight!
Since whilst we give praises we honour him right.

Praise the Lord, O my soul! all the pow'rs of
my mind,
[kind!
Praise the Lord, who hath been so exceedingly
Who spareth my life, and forgiveth my sin,
Still directeth the way that I ought to walk in:
When I speak, let me thank him; whenever I write,
The remembrance of him let the subject excite;
Guide, Lord, to thy glory, my tongue, and my pen,
Yea, let ev'ry thing praise thee-amen, and amen.

AN HYMN ON THE OMNIPRESENCE. OH Lord! thou hast known me, and searched me out,

Thou see'st, at all times, what I'm thinking about;
When I rise up to labour, or lie down to rest,
Thou markest each motion that works in my
breast;
[tell,
My heart has no secrets, but what thou can'st
Not a word in my tongue, but thou knowest it
well;

Thou see'st my intention before it is wrought,
Long before I conceive it, thou knowest my
thought.

Thou art always about me, go whither I will,
All the paths that I take to, I meet with thee still;
I go forth abroad, and am under thine eye,
I retire to myself, and behold! thou art by;
How is it that thou hast encompass'd me so
That I cannot escape thee, wherever I go?
Such knowledge as this is too high to attain,
'Tis a truth which I feel, tho' I cannot explain.

Whither then shall I flee from thy spirit, O

Lord?

What shelter can space from thy presence afford?
If I climb up to Heav'n, 't is there is thy throne,
If I go down to Hell, even there thou art known;
If for wings I should mount on the Morning's
swift ray,

And remain in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there, let the distance be ever so wide,
Thy hand would support me, thy right hand would
guide.

If I say, peradventure, the dark may conceal
What distance, tho' boundless, is forc'd to reveal,
Yet the dark, at thy presence, would vanish away,
And my covering, the night, would be turn'd into
day:

It is I myself only who could not then see,
Yea, the darkness, O Lord, is no darkness to thee:
The night, and the day, are alike in thy sight,
And the darkness, to thee, is as clear as the light.

THE COLLECT FOR ADVENT SUNDAY. ALMIGHTY God, thy heav'nly grace impart, And cast the works of darkness from our heart;

Against all evils of this mortal life;
O'er which our Saviour Jesus Christ, thy son,
With great humility the conquest won:
That when, in glory, our victorious Head
Shall come to judge the living and the dead,
We may, thro' him, to life immortal spring,
Wherein he reigns, the everlasting King;
The Father, Son, and Spirit may adore,
One glorious God Triune, for evermore.

HYMNS FOR CHRISTMAS DAY.
On this auspicious, memorable morn,
God and the Virgin's holy child was born;
Offspring of Heav'n, whose undefiled birth
Began the process of redeeming Earth;
Of re-producing Paradise again,
And God's lost image in the souls of men.

Adam, who kept not his first state of bliss,
Nor could he, with his outward helpmate Eve,
Rend'red himself incapable of this;
This, in our nature, never could be done,
This pure, angelic, virgin birth retrieve:
Until a virgin should conceive a son.

Mary, prepar'd for such a chaste embrace,
Was destin'd to this miracle of grace;
In her unfolded the mysterious plan
Of man's salvation, God's becoming man;
His power, with her humility combin'd,
Produe'd the sinless Saviour of mankind.

The heighth and depth of such amazing love
Nor can we measure, nor the blest above;
Its truth whoever reasons right will own,
Man never could be sav'd by man alone:
Salvation is, if rightly we define,
Union of human nature with divine.

What way to this, unless it had been trod
By the new birth of an incarnate God?
Birth of a life, that triumphs over death,
A life inspir'd by God's immortal breath;
For which himself, to save us from the tomb,
Did not abhor the Virgin Mother's womb.

O may this infant Saviour's birth inspire
Of real life an humble, chaste desire!
Raise it up in us! form it in our mind,
Like the blest Virgin's, totally resign'd!
A mortal life from Adam we derive;
We are, in Christ, eternally alive,

ON THE SAME.

CHRISTIANS awake, salute the happy moro,
Whereon the Saviour of the world was born;
Rise, to adore the mystery of love,

Which hosts of angels chanted from above:
With them the joyful tidings first begun
Of God incarnate, and the Virgin's Son:
Then to the watchful shepherds it was told,
Who heard th' angelic herald's voice-"Behold!
I bring good tidings of a Saviour's birth
To you, and all the nations upon Earth;
This day hath God fulfill'd his promis'd word;
This day is born a Saviour, Christ, the Lord:

In David's city, shepherds, ye shall find
The long foretold Redeemer of mankind;
Wrapt up in swadding clothes, the babe divine
Lies in a manger; this shall be your sign."
He spake, and straightway the celestial choir,
In hymns of joy, unknown before, conspire:
The praises of redeeming love they sung,
And Heav'ns whole orb with hallelujahs rung:
God's highest glory was their anthem still;
Peace upon Earth, and mutual good-will. [ran,
To Bethlehem straight th' enlightened shepherds
To see the wonder God had wrought for man;
And found, with Joseph and the blessed maid,
Her son, the Saviour, in a manger laid.
Amaz'd, the wond'rous story they proclaim;
The first apostles of his infant fame:
While Mary keeps, and ponders in her heart,
The heav'nly vision, which the swains impart;
They to their flocks, still praising God, return,
And their glad hearts within their bosoms burn.
Let us, like these good shepherds then, employ
Our grateful voices to proclaim the joy:
Like Mary, let us ponder in our mind
God's wond'rous love in saving lost mankind;
Artless, and watchful, as these favour'd swains,
While virgin meekness in the heart remains:
Trace we the babe, who has retriev'd our loss,
From his poor manger to his bitter cross;
Treading his steps, assisted by his grace,
Till man's first heav'nly state again takes place:
Then may we hope, th' angelic thrones among,
To sing, redeem'd, a glad triumphal song:
He that was born, upon this joyful day,
Around us all, his glory shall display;
Sav'd by his love, incessant we shall sing
Of angels, and of angel-men, the King.

ON THE EPIPHANY.

LED by the guidance of a living star,
The eastern sages travell'd from afar
To seek the Saviour, by prophetic fame
Describ'd to them as King of Jews by name;
Whose birth, to gentiles worthy of his sight,
Was now declar'd by this angelic light.

To its full height th' expectancy had grown Of what the learned foreigners made known; When at Jerusalem the sacred news Was spread by them to Herod, and the Jews; "Where is he born? For by his star," they said, "Thus far to worship him have we been led."

Herod, who had in his tyrannic mind No thought of empire, but of earthly kind, Jealous of this new king of Jewish tribes, In haste assembl'd all the priests, and scribes; Where Christ was to be born was his demand"In Bethlehem," they said, " in Juda's land."

He call'd the magi, privately again, To learn from them the time, precisely, when The star, which had conducted them, appear'd: And, having all his wily questions clear'd, Bad them to seek the child, and from the view Come, and tell him, that he might worship too.

They journey'd on to the appointed place, Which Jewish priests from prophecy could trace:

Cheer'd by the star's appearance on the way,
That pointed where the infant Saviour lay;
Meekly they stepp'd into his humble shrine,
And fell to worshipping the babe divine.

The Virgin mother saw them all prefer
Their off'rings, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh;
But warn'd of God his Father, in a dream,
They disappointed Herod's murd'rous scheme;
And, having seen the object of their faith,
Sought their own country by another path.

Does not reflection justly hence arise, That in the east, so famous for the wise, The truest learning, sapience, and skill, Was theirs, who sought, amidst the various ill Which they beheld, for that predicted scene, That should on Earth commence an heav'nly reign?

These true inquirers into Nature saw
That Nature must have some superior law;
Some righteous monarch, for the good of all,
To rule with justice this disorder'd ball;
Their humble sense of wants, o'erlook'd by pride,
Made them so worthy of the starlike guide.

We read how, then, the very pagan school
Was fill'd with rumours of a Jewish rule:
Tho' Jews themselves, as at this present day,
Dreamt of a worldly domineering sway;
The truly wise, or Jew, or Gentile, sought
A Christ, the object of an happier thought.

They best could understand prophetic page,
Simple, or learn'd, the shepherd, or the sage:
Their eyes could see, and follow a true light,
That led them on from prophecy to sight:
Could own the Son who, by the Father's will,
Should reign a King on Sion's holy Hill.

Of treasures which the wise were mov'd to bring,
If gold presented might confess the king,
Incense to his divinity relate,

And myrrh denote his bitter, suff'ring state,
They offer'd types of the theandric plan
Of our salvation, God's becoming man.

In this redeeming process all concurr'd
To give sure proof of the prophetic word;
Jesus, Emanuel, the inward light

Of all mankind, who seek the truth aright,
Forms in the heart of all the wise on Earth
The true day-star, the token of his birth.

MEDITATIONS

FOR EVERY DAY IN PASSION WEEK.

MONDAY.

God in Christ is all love.

BEHOLD the tender love of God!-behold
The Shepherd dying to redeem his fold!
Who can declare it?-Worthy to be known-
What tongue can speak it worthily?-His own:
From his own sacred lips the theme began,
The glorious gospel of God's love to man.

So great, so boundless was it, that he gave
His only Son-and for what end?-To save;

All that, in nature, by this act is done

Not to condemn; if men reject the light,
They, of themselves, condemn themselves to night; Is to give life; and life is in his Son:
God, in his Son, seeks only to display,
In ev'ry heart, an everlasting day.

"God hath so shown his love to us," says Paul,
"Even yet sinners, that Christ dy'd for all:"
Peter, that God's all gracious aim is this,
By Christ, to call us to eternal bliss:
Of all th' inspir'd to understand the view
Love is the text-and love the comment too;

The ground to build all faith and works upon;
"For God is love"-says the beloved John-
Short word-but meaning infinitely wide,
Including all that can be said beside;
Including all the joyful truths above
The pow'r of eloquence-for-" God is love."

Think on the proof, that John from Jesus
learn'd,

In this was God's amazing love discern'd,
Because he sent his Son to us; that we
Might live thro' him-how plain it is to see
That, if in this, in ev'ry other fact,
Where God is agent, love is in the act.

Essential character, (whatever word

Of diff'rent sound in scripture has occurr'd)
Of all that is ascrib'd to God; of all
That can by his immediate will befall:

The Sun's bright orb may lose its shining flame,
But ove remains unchangeably the same.

TUESDAY.

How Christ quencheth the wrath of God in us.

THE Saviour dy'd, according to our faith,
To quench, atone, or pacify a wrath-

But "God is love" he has no wrath his own;
Nothing in him to quench, or to atone :
Of all the wrath, that scripture has reveal'd,
The poor fall'n creature wanted to be heal'd.

God, of his own pure love, was pleas'd to give
The Lord of Life, that thro' him it might live;
Thro' Christ; because none other could be found
To heal the human nature of its wound:
This great physician of the soul had, sure,
In him, who gave him, no defect to cure.

He did, he suffer'd ev'ry thing, that we
From wrath, by sin enkind'd, might be free,
The wrath of God, in us, that is, the fire
Of burning life, without the love-desire;
Without the light, which Jesus came to raise,
And change the wrath into a joyful blaze.

The wrath is God's; but in himself unfelt;
As ice and frost are his, and pow'r to melt:
Not even man could any wrath, as such,
Till he had lost his first perfection, touch:
God has but one immutable good will,
To bless his creatures, and to save from ill.

Cordial, or bitter a physician's draught,
The patient's health is in his ord'ring thought:
God's mercies, or God's judgments be the name,
Eternal health is his all-saving aim.

"Vengeance belongs to God"-and so it should-
For love alone can turn it all to good.

VOL. XV.

When his humility, his meekness finds
Healing admission, into willing minds,
All wrath disperses, like a gath'ring sore;
Pain is its cure, and it exists no more.

WEDNESDAY.

Christ satisfieth the justice of God by fulfilling all
righteousness.

JUSTICE demandeth satisfaction-Yes;
And ought to have it where injustice is:
But

there is none in God-it cannot mean
Demand of justice where it has full reign:
To dwell in man it rightfully demands,
Such as he came from his Creator's hands.

Man had departed from a righteous state,
Which he, at first, must have, if God create:
'Tis therefore call'd God's righteousness; and
Be satisfy'd by man's becoming just: [must
Must exercise good vengeance upon men,
Till it regain its rights in them again.

This was the justice, for which Christ became

A man, to satisfy its righteous claim;
Became Redeemer of the human race,
That sin, in them, to justice might give place:
To satisfy a just, and righteous will,

Is neither more, nor less, than to fulfil.

It was, in God, the loving will that sought
The joy of having man's salvation wrought:
Hence, in his Son, so infinitely pleas'd
With righteousness fulfill'd, and wrath appeas'd:
Not with mere suff'ring, which he never wills,
But with mere love, that triumph'd over ills.

'Twas tender mercy-by the church confess'd,
Before she feeds the sacramental guest;
Rememb'ring him, who offer'd up his soul
A sacrifice for sin, full, perfect, whole,
Sufficient, satisfactory-and all

That words (how short of merit!) can recall.

And when receiv'd his body, and his blood,
The life enabling to be just, and good,
Off'ring, available thro' him alone,
Body, and soul, a sacrifice her own:
From him, from his, so, justice has its due;
Itself restor'd,-not any thing in lieu.

THURSDAY.

Christ the beginner and finisher of the new life in man.
DEAD as men are, in trespasses and sins,
Whence is it in them that new life begins?
'Tis that, by God's great mercy, love and grace,
The seed of Christ is in the human race;
That inward, hidden man, that can revive,
And, dead in Adam, rise in Christ alive.

Life natural, and life divine possess'd,
Must needs unite, to make a creature bless'd:
The first, a feeling hunger, and desire
Of what it cannot of itself acquire;
Wherein the second, entering to dwell,
Makes all an Heav'n, that would be else an Hell.

As only light all darkness can expel,
So was his conquest over death, and Hell,
The only possible, effectual way
To raise to life what Adam's sin could slay:
Death by the falling, by the rising Man
The resurrection of the dead began.

This heav'nly parent of the human race
The steps, that Adam fell by, could retrace;
Could bear the suff'rings requisite to save;
Could die, a man, and triumph o'er the grave:
This, for our sakes, incarnate love could do;
Great is the mystery-and greatly true.

Prophets, apostles, martyrs, and the choir
Of holy virgin witnesses, conspire
To animate a Christian to endure
Whatever cross God gives him, for his cure:
Looking to Jesus, who has led the way
From death to life, from darkness into day.

Unmov'd by earthly good, or earthly ill,
The man Christ Jesus wrought God's blessed will:
Death, in the nature of the thing, that hour
Wherein he dy'd, lost all its deadly pow'r:
Then, then was open'd, by what he sustain'd,
The gate of life, and Paradise regain'd.

FRIDAY.

How the sufferings and death of Christ are available to man's salvation.

SATURDAY.

How Christ by his death overcame death.
JESUS is crucify'd-the previous scene
Of our salvation, and his glorious reign:
Mysterious process! tho' by Nature's laws,
Such an effect demanded such a cause:
For none but he could form the grand design,
And raise, anew, the human life divine.

No less a mystery can claim belief,
That what belongs to our redeeming chief:
Divine, and supernatural indeed

The love that mov'd the Son of God to bleed;
But what he was, and did, in each respect,
Was real cause producing its effect.

Children of Adam needs must share his fall;
Children of Christ can re-inberit all:
This was the one, and therefore chosen way,
For Love to manifest its full display:
Absurd the thought of arbitrary plans;
Nature's one, true religion this and man's.

All that we know of God, and Nature too,
Proves the salvation of the gospel true;
Where all unites in one consistent whole,
The life of God renew'd within the soul:
Renew'd by Christ-he only could restore
The heav'n in man to what it was before:

Could raise God's image, clos'd in death by sin,

WITH hearts deep rooted in love's holy ground And raise himself, the light of life, therein: Should be ador'd this mystery profound Of God's Messiah, suff'ring in our frame; The Lamb Christ Jesus-blessed be his name! Dying, in this humanity of ours,

To introduce his own life-giving pow'rs.

Herein is love! descending from his throne,
The Fath r's bosom, for our sakes alone,
What Earth, what Hell, could wrathfully unite
Of ills, he vanquish'd with enduring might:
Legions of angels ready at command,
Singly he chose to bear, and to withstand.

To bear, intent upon mankind's relief,
Ev'ry excess of ev'ry shame, and grief;
Of inward anguish, past all thought severe;
Such as pure innocence alone could bear:
Dev'lish temptation, treachery, and rage,
Naked, for us, did innocence engage.

Nail'd to a cross it suffer'd, and forgave;
And show'd the penitent its pow'r to save:
It's majesty confess'd by Nature's shock;
Darkness and earthquake-and the rented rock,
And opening graves-the prelude to that pow'r,
Which rose in suff'ring Love's momentous hour.

No other pow'r could save, but Jesus can;
The living God was in the dying man:
Who, perfected by suff'rings, from the grave
Rose in the fulness of all pow'r to save:
With that one blessed life of God to fill
The vacant soul, that yieldeth up its will.

To learn is ev'ry pious Christian's part,
From his great master, this most holy art;
This our high calling, privilege, and prize,
With him to suffer, and with him to rise:
To live to die-meek, patient, and resign'd
To God's good pleasure, with a Christ-like mind.

The one same light that makes angelic bliss;
That spreads an heav'n thro' Nature's whole abyss:
The light of Nature, and the light of men,
That gives the dead his pow'r to live again.

"The way, the truth, the life"-whatever terms Preferr'd, 'tis him that ev'ry good affirms; The one true Saviour; all is dung and dross, In saving sense, but Jesus and his cross: All nature speaks; all scripture answers thus"Salvation is the life of Christ in us."

EASTER COLLECT.

ALMIGHTY God! whose blessed will was done
By Jesus Christ, our Lord, thine only Son;
Death overcome, and open'd unto men
The gate of everlasting life again;
Grant us, baptiz'd into his death, to die
To all affections, but to things on high;
That when, by thy preventing grace, we find
The good desires to rise within our mind,
Our wills may tend as thine shall still direct,
And bring the good desires to good effect;
Thro' him, the one Redeemer from the fall,
Who liv'd and dy'd, and rose again for all.

EASTER DAY.

THE morning dawns; the third approaching day
Can only show the place where Jesus lay:
Angels descend-Remember what he said-
"He is not here, but risen from the dead;
Betray'd into the hands of sinful men,
The Son of man must die, and rise again."

So sang the prophets, ever since the fall; Of rites ordain'd the meaning this, thro' all: This, by the various sacrifice of old, Memorial type, and shadow, was foretold: Even false worship, careless hat is meant, Gave to this truth an ignorant consent.

Christ is the sum, and substance of the whole
That God has done, or said, to save a soul:
To raise himself a church; when that is done,
The world becomes the kingdom of his Son:
An Heav'n restor❜d to the redeem'd, the born
Of him, who rose on this auspicious morn.

He that was dead, in order to restore,
Behold! he is alive for evermore:
An heavenly Adam, full impower'd to give
The life, that men were first design'd to live:
Fountain of life, come whosoever will
To quench his thirst, and freely take his fill.

Mankind, in him, are life's predestin'd heirs;
His rising glories the first-fruits of theirs:
Hearts, that renounce the slavery to sin,
Feel of his pow'r the living warmth within:
Of strength'ning faith, of joyous hope possest,
And heav'n-producing love, within the breast.

The breast the temple of the Holy Ghost, When once enliven'd by this heav'nly host: His resurrection, the sure proof of ours, Will there exert his death-destroying pow'rs; Till all his sons shall meet before his throne In glorious bodies, fashion'd like his own.

AN HYMN FOR EASTER DAY.

THE Lord is risen! He who came

To suffer death, and conquer too, Is risen; let our song proclaim

The praise to man's Redeemer due: To him whom God, in tender love,

Always, alike, to bless inclin'd, Sent to redeem us, from above; To save, to sanctify mankind.

CHORUS.

"Worthy of all pow'r and praise,
He who dy'd and rose again;
Lamb of God, and slain to raise
Man, to life redeem'd-amen."

That life which Adam ceas'd to live,
When to this world he turn'd his heart,
And to his children could not give,

The second Adam can impart.

We, on our earthly parent's side,

Could but receive a life of earth;
The Lord from Heaven, he liv'd, and died,
And rose to give us heav'nly birth.

CHO. Worthy of all pow'r and praise, &c.
This mortal life, this living death,
Shows that in Adam we all die;
In Christ we have immortal breath,
And life's unperishing supply:

He took our nature, and sustain'd
The mis'ries of its sinful state;
Sinless himself, for us regain'd

To Paradise an open gate.

CHO. Worthy of all pow'r and praise, &c. As Adam rais'd a life of sin,

So Christ, the Serpent-bruising seed, By God's appointment could begin The birth, in us, of life indeed:

He did begin; parental head,

As Adam fell, so Jesus stood;
Fulfill'd all righteousness, and said
"Tis finish'd!"-on the sacred wood.

CHO. Worthy of all pow'r and praise, &c.
Finish'd his work, to quench the wrath,
That sin had brought on Adam's race;
To pave the sole, and certain path
From nature's life, to that of grace:

For joy of this, God's only Son

Endur'd the cross, despis'd the shame, And gave the victory, so won,

For imitating love to claim.

CHO. Worthy of all pow'r and praise, &c. To tread the path that Jesus trod,

Aided by him, be our employ;

To die to sin, and live to God,

And yield him the fair purchas'd joy:
To all the laws that Love has made
Stedfast, unshaken to attend;
He died, he rose, himself our aid,
"Lo! I am with you to the end."

CHORUS.

Worthy of all pow'r and praise,

He who died and rose again; Lamb of God, and slain to raise Man, to life redeem'd-Amen.

ON WHITSUNDAY.

JESUS, ascended into Heav'n again,
Bestow'd this wond'rous gift upon good men,
That various nations, by his spirit led,
All understood what Galileans said:

He gave the word, who form'd the list'ning ear, And truth became in ev'ry language clear.

One country's tongue, to his apostles known, To ev'ry pious soul became its own: The well dispos'd, from all the world around, With holy wonder, heard the gospel sound; Their hearts prepar'd to hear it-God's command No obstacle in nature could withstand.

Nature itself, if ev'ry heart was right, All jarring languages would soon unite: Her's is but one, intelligible guide;

But tongues are numberless where hearts divide: The Babel projects bring them to their birth, And scatter discord o'er the face of Earth.

The prince of peace now sending, from above, His Holy Spirit of uniting love,

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