278. Praise for Salvation.

SALVATION! O melodious sound
To wretched dying men!
Salvation that from God proceeds,
And leads to God again!

Rescu'd from hell's eternal gloom,
From fiends and fires and chains:
Rais'd to a paradise of bliss,
Where love and glory reigns!
But O! may a degenerate soul,
Sinful and weak as mine,
Presume to raise a trembling eye
To blessings so divine.

The lustre of so bright a bliss
My feeble heart o'er bears;
And unbelief almost perverts
The promise into tears.

My Saviour God, no voice but thine
These dying hopes can raise:
Speak thy salvation to my soul,
And turn its tears to praise.

My saviour God, this broken voice
Transported shall proclaim,
And call on all th' angelic harps
To sound so sweet a name.

279. The Christian encouraged.

How oft, alas! this wretched heart
Has wander'd from the Lord;

How oft my roving thoughts depart
Forgetful of his word!

1

Yet sov❜reign mercy calls, return:'
Dear Lord, and may I come!
My vile ingratitude I mourn!

O take the wanderer home.

And canst thou, wilt thou yet forgive,
And bid my crimes remove?
And shall a pardon'd rebel live

To speak thy wondrous love!

Almighty grace, thy healing power
How glorious, how divine!
That can to life and bliss restore
So vile a heart as mine.

Thy pardoning love, so free, so sweet,
Dear Saviour, I adore;

O keep me at thy sacred feet,
And let me rove no more,

280.

Christian Submission.

It is the Lord.. enthron'd in light,
Whose claims are all divine;
Who has an undisputed right
To govern me and mine.

It is the Lord..should I distrust;
Or contradict his will?
Who cannot do but what is just,
And must be righteous still.

It is the Lord..who gives me all
My wealth, my friends, my ease;

And of his bounties may recal
Whatever part he please.
It is the Lord..who can sustain
Beneath the heaviest load,
From whom assistance I obtain
To tread the thorny road.

It is the Lord..whose matchless skill
Can from afflictions raise
Matter eternity to fill

With ever growing praise.

It is the Lord..my cov'nant God,
Thrice blessed be his name!

Whose gracious promise, seal'd with blood,
Must ever be the same.

281. The Heart deceitful.

My God, how perfect are thy ways!
But mine polluted are;
Sin twines itself about my praise,
And slides into my pray❜r.

When I would speak what thou hast done

To save me from my sin,
I cannot make thy mercies known
But self-applause creeps in.
Divine desire, that holy flame,
Thy grace creates in me;
Alas! impatience is its name

When it returns to thee.

This heart, a fountain of vile thoughts,
How does it overflow;

While self upon the surface floats,
Still bubbling from below.

Let others in the gaudy dress
Of fancy'd merit shine;
The Lord shall be my righteousness,
The Lord for ever mine.

282. Confidence in God.
BEGONE, unbelief,
My Saviour is near,
And for my relief
Will surely appear:
By pray'r let me wrestle,
And he will perform;
With Christ in the vessel,
I smile at the storm.
Tho' dark be my way,
Since he is my guide,
'Tis mine to obey,

"Tis his to provide;
Tho' cisterns be broken,
And creatures all fail,
The word he has spoken
Shall surely prevail.

His love in time past
Forbids me to think
He'll leave me at last
In trouble to sink;
Each sweet Ebenezer
I have in review,

Confirms his good pleasure To help me quite through. Determin'd to save, He watch'd o'er my path, When, Satan's blind slave, I sported with death; And can he have taught me To trust in his name, And thus far have brought me To put me to shame? Why should I complain Of want or distress, Temptation or pain? He told me no less: The heirs of salvation, I know from his word, Thro' much tribulation Must follow their Lord.

How bitter that

cup,

No heart can conceive, Which he drank quite up, That sinners might live! His way was much rougher And darker than mine; Did Jesus thus suffer,

And shall I repine?

Since all that I meet

Shall work for my good,

The bitter is sweet,
The med'cine is food;