LL ye who laugh and sport with death,
And say there is no hell,
The gasp of your expiring breath,
Will send you there to dwell.
2 When iron thunders bind your flesh,
With strange surprise you'll find,
Immortal vigor spring afresh,
And tortures wake the mind.
3 Then you'll confess, the frightful names
Of plagues you scorned before,
No more shall look like idle dreams,
Like foolish tales no more.
4 Then shall ye curse that fatal day,
With flames upon your tongue,
When you exchanged your souls away,
For vanity and songs.
HROUGH all the various passing scenes
Of life's mistaken ill or good,
Thy hand, O God! conducts unseen
The beautiful vicissitude.
2 When lowest sunk with grief and shame,
Fill'd with afflictions bitter cup,
Lost to relations, friends and fame,
Thy powerful hand can raise us up.
3 Thy powerful consolations cheer,
Thy smiles suppress the deep fetch'd sigh, Thy hand can dry the trickling tear,
That secret wets the widow's eye.
4 All things on earth, and all heaven,
On thy eternal will depend;
And all for greater good were given,
And all shall in thy glory end.
HERE was a time, there was a time,
1T When warth was fair and heav'n was bright,
To eyes that now are dimmed with tears,
In prospect of eternal night.
2 There was a time, there wase,
When all was joy within that breast,
Where memory now, with scorpion whip,
Scourges the conscience from its rest.
3 There was a time, there was a time,
When noblest feelings swelled the soul,
Until the tempter overcame
And drowned those feelings in the bowl.
4 There was a time, there was a time,
When life's young spring was gay and fair,
And promised much; but winter came,
The dreary winter of despair!
5 And must it be for ever so?
Is man's the melancholy doom,
That in his breast no flowers revive;
No second spring can ever bloom?
6 No-there are balmy gales whose wings
Shed quickening odours from above,
While settle on the withered heart
The freshening dews of heavenly love.
7 They will restore the drooping plant
Of virtue, which shall never die,
But flourish in a brighter green,
Until transplanted to the sky.
THE WORD OF HOPE.
HERE'S a blessing on the wing,
Sons of want and misery, sing;
This the simple solemn strain,
This the word of hope, "ABSTAIN :"
Touch nor taste; for dark despair
Fills the cup of poison there :
With a heaven uplifted eye,
From the fell destroyer fly!
Tens of thousands he has slain,
Tens of thousands court his chain;
Never more his portion take,
For your souls' and mercy's sake.
2 Hear your wives, your children plead,
Hear the gospel intercede!
Helpless drunkards, hither fly!
"Touch not, taste not," or you die!
Die! alas! there is a doom,
Darker than the darkest tomb,
Blacker than the blackest night,
Rayless sorrow, endless blight;
There the dying drunkard goes,
Draining draughts of bitterest woes,
List, then, to the simple strain,
Hear the word of hope—ABSTAIN !
PRAYER OF THE REFORMED.
10 thou source of ils unnumbered,
Long by thee I've been enslaved,
Much too long has reason slumbered,
But adieu, at last I'm saved.
2 Long bereft of every blessing,
I have sought for rest in vain ;
Misery's iron hand oppressing,
Held its unrelenting chain.
3 Once my injur'd wife beset me,
By unmeasur'd wo unblest;
Ragged children ever met me;
Dreams of horrors broke my rest.
4 I was sick, but now I'm healthy;
I have just escap'd the tomb;
I was poor, but now I'm wealthy;
Plenty smiles upon my home.
5 Star of temp'rance, brightly shining,
Shed thy radiant beams around;
Every joyous heart combining,
Loudly let its praise resound.
Tunnet, one not quit despair.
HOUGH sore beset with guilt and fear,
If I must perish, would the Lord
Have taught my heart to love his word?
Would he have giv'n me eyes to see
My danger and my remedy?
Reveal'd his name, and bid me pray,
Had he resolved to say me nay?
: though cast down, I am not slain;
I'm fallen, but shall rise again.
The present, Satan, is thy hour,
But Jesus shall control thy power.
His love will plead for my relief;
He hears my groans, he sees my grief;
Nor will he suffer thee to boast
A soul that sought his help was lost.
I'll cast myself before his feet;
I see him on his mercy-seat:
(Tis sprinkled with atoning blood :)
There sinners find access to God.
Ye burdened souls approach with me,
And make the Saviour's name your plea;
Jesus will pardon all who come,
And strike our fierce accuser dumb."
OBJECT AND END OF THE TEMPER
AIL temp'rance, fair celestial ray!
Bright herald of a new-born day!
Long did we need thy cheering light
To chase away our darksome night.
2 Deep and appalling was the gloom,
'Twas like the darkness of the tomb,
When first our much delighted eyes
Beheld thy beauteous beams arise.
3 'Twas God in mercy bade thee shine;
We hail thee as a boon divine.
And now in grateful strains would raise
Our voices in his matchless praise.
4 Eternal Lord! we own thy grace,
In all that aids our guilty race.
Now send thy Spirit from above
And fill our hearts with joy and love.
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