3 There's not a sparrow, nor a worm,
O'erlooked in his decrees:

He raises monarchs to a throne,
Or sinks with equal ease.

4 If light attend the course we go,
"Tis he provides the rays;

And 'tis his hand that hides the sun,
If darkness cloud our days.

5 Trusting thy wisdom, God of love!
We would not wish to know
What, in the book of thy decrees
Awaits us here below.

6 Be this alone our fervent prayer;
Whate'er our lot shall be,

Or joys, or sorrows-may they form
Our souls for heaven and thee!

241. L. M.

Watts.

Life the Day of Mercy and Hope. Eccles. ix.

1 LIFE is the time to serve the Lord,
The time to insure the great reward;
And while the lamp holds on to burn,
The greatest sinner may return.

2 Life is the season God has given
To fit us for the joys of heaven;
That day of grace fleets fast away,
And none its rapid course can stay.

3 Then what our thoughts design to do
Let us with all our might pursue;
And wisely every hour employ,
That faith and hope may turn to joy.

Watts, alt'd,

242. L. M.

And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years, and he died."

1 LIKE shadows gliding o'er the plain, Or clouds that roll successive on,

Man's busy generations pass,

And while we gaze, their forms are gone.

2 Vain was the boast of lengthened years, The patriarch's full maturity;

'Twas but a larger drop to swell
The ocean of eternity.

3 'He lived he died;' behold the sum,
The abstract of the historian's page!
Alike, in God's all-seeing eye,
The infant's day, the patriarch's age.

4 O Father! in whose mighty hand,
The boundless years and ages lie;
Teach us thy boon of life to prize,
And use the moments as they fly;

5 To crowd the narrow span of life
With wise designs and virtuous deeds:
So shall we wake from death's dark night,
To share the glory that succeeds.

243. c. M.

John Taylor:

Devout contemplation of Creation.

1 Look round, O man! survey this globe;

Think of creating power;

See nature give a different robe
To every herb and flower.

2 See various beings fill the air,
And people earth and sea;
What grateful changes form the year!
How constant night and day!

3 Now raise thine eye; the expanse above,
A power unbounded shows;
See round the sun the planets move,
And various worlds compose.

4 Then turn into thyself, O man!
With wonder view thy soul;
Confess his power who laid each plan,
And still directs the whole.

5 And let obedience to his laws
Thy gratitude proclaim,
To him, the first almighty cause;
Jehovah is his name.

Liverpool Old Col.

244. C. M.

The Goodness of God to those who love and trust in him.

1 LORD, how resplendent shines thy grace, Through sorrow's darkest sky,

To those who humbly seek thy face,
And on thy love rely.

2 If wealth take wings and flee away,
They still have stores divine;
A treasure that shall ne'er decay,
A pure exhaustless mine.

3 When death has slain their earthly joys,
Not hopeless they deplore;
They look to those eternal skies,
Where friends shall part no more.

4 And when, with conscious guilt oppressed, They own their sins to thee;

Thou dost revive the fainting breast,
With pardon full and free.

5 O Lord, to thee our hearts we'll bring
Fixed in thy love and fear;

Then shall our sorrows lose their sting,
And dry be every tear!

Liverpool (Paradise st.) Coll.

245. L. M.

Man frail, and God eternal. Ps. xc.

1 LORD! thou hast been thy children's God,
All-powerful, wise, and good, and just;
In every age their safe abode,

Their hope, their refuge, and their trust.

2 Long hadst thou reigned ere time began ;
And long thy kingdom shall endure,
When all the feeble race of man,
And time itself, shall be no more.

3 Great Father of eternity!
How short are ages in thy sight!
A thousand years, how swift they fly,
Like one still, silent watch of night!

4 Uncertain life, how soon it flies!
Flowers of the morn, how short our bloom!
Like spring's gay verdure now we rise,
Cut down ere night to fill the tomb!

5 Teach us, O Lord! to count our days,
And with true diligence apply
Our hearts to wisdom's sacred ways,
That we may learn to live and die..

† Exeter Coll. alt'd.

246. L. M.

God omnipresent. Ps. cxxxix.

1 LORD! thou hast searched and seen me through; Thine eye commands, with piercing view, My rising and my resting hours,

My heart and flesh with all their powers.

2 My thoughts, before they are my own,
Are to my God distinctly known:
He knows the words I mean to speak,
Ere from my opening lips they break.

3 Within his circling power I stand;
On every side I find his hand:
Awake, asleep, at home, abroad,
I am surrounded still with God.

4 Amazing knowledge! vast and great!
What large extent! what lofty height!
My soul, with all the powers I boast,
Is in the boundless prospect lost.

5 O may these thoughts possess my breast,
Where'er I rove, where'er I rest!
Nor let my weaker passions dare
Consent to sin; for God is there.

247. c. M.

Watts.

Imploring Divine Protection. Prov. iii. 5, 6.

1 LORD! through the dubious path of life
Thy feeble servant guide;
Supported by thy powerful arm,
My footsteps shall not slide.