A mansion which eternal love
Designed and formed for me.
My Father's gracious hand
Has built this sweet abode;
From everlasting it was planned
My dwelling-place with God.
2 My Saviour's precious blood
Has made my title sure:

3

[flood,

He passed through death's dark raging
To make my rest secure.
The Comforter is come,

The earnest has been given;

He leads me onward to the home
Reserved for me in heaven.

Bright angels guard my way;
His ministers of power,

Encamping round me night and day,
Preserve in danger's hour.

Loved ones are gone before,
Whose pilgrim days are done;

I soon shall greet them on that shore,
Where partings are unknown.

4 But more than all I long His glories to behold,

5

Whose smile fills all that radiant throng With ecstacy untold.

That bright, yet tender smile

My sweetest welcome there

Shall cheer me through the "little while"

I tarry for Him here.

Thy love, Thou precious Lord,

My joy and strength shall be; [word Till Thou shalt speak the gladdening That bids me rise to Thee.

And then through endless days,
Where all Thy glories shine,

In happier, holier strains I'll praise
The grace that made me Thine.

7.6.7.6.7.7.7.6.

599 Seek those things which are above.

-Col. 3, 1.

1 RISE, my soul, and stretch thy wings, Thy better portion trace;

Rise from transitory things,

Towards heaven, thy native place:

Sun, and moon, and stars decay;
Time shall soon this earth remove;
Rise, my soul, and haste away
To seats prepared above.

2 Rivers to the ocean run,

Nor stay in all their course;
Fire ascending seeks the sun;
Both speed them to their source:
So a soul, new-born of God,
Pants to view His glorious face,
Upward tends to His abode,
To rest in His embrace.

3 Cease, ye pilgrims, cease to mourn,
Press onward to the prize;
Soon your Saviour will return
Triumphant in the skies:
Yet a season, and you know
Happy entrance will be given,
All your sorrows left below,
And earth exchanged for heaven.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE:

VICTORY OVER DEATH.

C.M.

600 Blessed are the dead which die in

1

HEAR

the Lord.-Rev. 14, 13.

EAR what the voice from heaven proclaims

For all the pious dead;

Sweet is the savour of their names,
And soft their sleeping bed.

2 They sleep in Jesus and are blest:
How soft their slumbers are!
From sufferings and from sin releast,
And freed from every snare.

3 Far from this world of toil and strife,
They're present with the Lord;
The labours of their mortal life
End in a large reward.

C.M.

601 An inheritance incorruptible, and

1

undefiled.-1 Pet. 1, 4.

BLEST be the Everlasting God,
The Father of our Lord;

Be His abounding mercy praised,

His majesty adored.

2 When from the dead he raised His Son And called Him to the sky,

He gave our souls a lively hope
That they should never die.

3 What though our inbred sins require
Our flesh to see the dust;
Yet as the Lord our Saviour rose,
So all His followers must.

4 There's an inheritance divine
Reserved against that day;
Tis uncorrupted, undefiled,
And cannot fade away.

5 Saints by the power of God are kept
Till the salvation come:

We walk by faith, as strangers here,
Till Christ shall call us home.

C.M.

602 The victory through our Lord

1

Jesus Christ.-1 Cor. 15, 57.

FOR an overcoming faith,
To cheer my dying hours;

To triumph o'er the monster, Death,
And all his frightful powers!

2 Joyful with all the strength I have,
My quivering lips shall sing,
Where is thy boasted victory, Grave?
And where, O Death! thy sting?

3 If sin be pardoned, I'm secure;
Death has no sting beside:

The Law gives sin its damning power,
But Christ my ransom died.

4 Now to the God of victory

Immortal thanks be paid,

Who makes us conquerors while we die,

Through Christ our living Head.

C.M.

603 The righteous hath hope in his

death.-Prov. 14, 32.

THY do we mourn departing friends,
Or shake at death's alarms?

W

Tis but the voice that Jesus sends
To call them to His arms.

2 Why should we tremble to convey
Their bodies to the tomb?
There the dear flesh of Jesus lay,
And left a long perfume.

3 The graves of all His saints He blest,
And softened every bed:

Where should the dying members rest,
But with their dying Head?

Thence He arose, ascending high,
And showed our feet the way;
Up to the Lord our flesh shall fly,
At the great rising day.

3 Then let the last loud trumpet sound,
And bid our kindred rise;
Awake, ye nations under ground;
Ye saints, ascend the skies.

6.6.4.

604 Give ear unto my cry, hold not

Thy peace at my tears.-Ps. 39, 12.

1LOWLY and solemn be

Thy children's cry to Thee,
Father divine!

A hymn of suppliant breath,
Owning that life and death
Alike are Thine.

2 O Father, in that hour,

When earth all succouring power
Shall disavow;

When spear, and shield, and crown,
In faintness are cast down;

Sustain us, Thou.

3 By Him who bowed to take
The death-cup for our sake,
The thorn, the rod;

From whom the last dismay
Was not to pass away:
Aid us, O God.

4 Tremblers beside the grave,
We call on Thee to save,
Father divine!

Hear, hear our suppliant breath,
Keep us in life and death,
Thine, only Thine.

P.M.

6050 grave, where is thy victory?—

1

2

1 Cor. 15, 55.

VITAL spark of heavenly flame: Quit, O quit this mortal frame! Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying, O the pain, the bliss of dying!

Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.

Hark! they whisper; angels say,
Sister spirit, come away!

What is this absorbs me quite?
Steals my senses-shuts my sight-
Drowns my spirit-draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?
3 The world recedes; it disappears!
Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears
With sounds seraphic ring:

Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O Grave, where is thy victory?
O Death, where is thy sting?

L.M.

606 Let me die the death of the right

1

HOW

eous.-Num. 23, 10.

OW blest the righteous when he
dies!

When sinks a weary soul to rest,

How mildly beam the closing eyes:
How gently heaves the expiring breast!

2 So fades a summer cloud away;

So sinks the gale when storms are o'er;
So gently shuts the eye of day.;
So dies a wave along the shore.

3 A holy quiet reigns around,

A calm which life nor death destroys;
Nothing disturbs that peace profound
Which his unfettered soul enjoys.