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Mount with the lark, and bear our song
Up to the gates of light,
Or with the nightingale prolong
Our numbers through the night!

In every stream His bounty flows,
Diffusing joy and wealth;
In every breeze His spirit blows,—
The breath of life and health.

His blessings fall in plenteous showers
Upon the lap of earth,
That teems with foliage, fruit, and flowers.
And rings with infant mirth.

If God hath made this world so fair,
Where sin and death abound;
How beautiful beyond compare
Will Paradise be found!

A MIDNIGHT THOUGHT.
In a land of strange delight,
My transported spirit stray'd,
I awake where all is night,
Silence, solitude, and shade.

Is the dream of Nature flown?
Is the universe destroy' d?
Man extinct, and I alone
Breathing through the formless void!

No:—my soul, in God rejoice;
Through the gloom His light I see,
In the silence hear His voice,
And His hand is over me.

When I slumber in the tomb,
He will guard my resting place;
Fearless in the day of doom,
May I stand before His face I

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CHRIST'S PASSION.

The morning dawns upon the place,
Where Jesus spent the night in prayer;
Through brightening glooms behold His facs,
No form nor comeliness is there.
Last eve, by those He call'd his own,
Betray'd, forsaken, or denied,
He met His enemies alone,
In all their malice, rage, and pride.

Brought forth to judgment now He stands,
Arraign'd, condemn'd, at Pilate's bar;
Here spurn'd by fierce Praetorian bands,
There mock'd by Herod's men of war:
He bears their buffetting and scorn,
Feign'd homage of the lip, the knee,
The purple robe, the crown of thorn,
The scourge, the nail, the accursed tree.

No guile within His mouth is found,
He neither threatens nor complains;
Meek as a lamb for slaughter bound,
Dumb midst His murderers He remains:
But hark! He prays;—'tis for His foes;
He speaks;—'tis comfort to His friends;
Answers;—and Paradise bestows;
"'Tis finish'd!"—here the conflict ends.

He dies; the vail is rent in twain;
Darkness o'er all the land is spread,
High, without tempest, rolls the main,
Earth trembles, graves give up their dead:
"Truly this was the Son of God !"—
Though in a servant's mean disguise,
And bruised beneath the Father's rod,
Not for Himself,—for man He dies.

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CHRIST'S TRIUMPH.
Hark! the song of Jubilee,
Loud as mighty thunders roar,
Or the fulness of the sea,
When it breaks upon the shore :—
Hallelujah! for the Lord
God Omnipotent shall reign:
Hallelujah !—let the word
Echo round the earth and main.

Hallelujah '—hark! the sound,

From the abysses to the skies,

Wakes above, beneath, around,

All Creation's harmonies:

See Jehovah's banner furl'd,

Sheath'd His sword:—He speaks,—'tis done;

And the kingdoms of this world

Are the kingdoms of His Son.

He shall reign from pole to pole,
With illimitable sway;
He shall reign, when, like a scroll,
Yonder heavens have pass'd away:
Then the end:—beneath His rod,
Man's last enemy shall fall;
Hallelujah! Christ in God,
God in Christ, is All in All.

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These through fiery trials trod;
These from great affliction came;
Now before the throne of God,
Seal'd with His eternal name;
Clad in raiment pure and white,
Victor-palms in every hand,
Through their great Redeemer's might,
More than conquerors they stand.

Hunger, thirst, disease unknown,
On immortal fruits they feed;
Them the Lamb, amidst the throne,
Shall to living fountains lead;
Joy and gladness banish sighs,
Perfect love dispels their fears,
And for ever from their eyes
God shall wipe away all tears.

THE BIBLE.

What is the world 1—A wildering maze,
Where Sin hath track'd ten thousand way:-

Her victims to ensnare;
All broad, and winding, and aslope,
All tempting with perfidious hope,

All ending in despair.

Millions of pilgrims throng those roads.
Bearing their baubles, or their loads,

Down to eternal night:
Giu humble path, that never bends,
Narrow, and rough, and steep, ascends

From darkness into light.

Is there a Guide to show that path?
The Bible:—He alone, who hath

The Bible, need not stray:
Yet he who hath, and will not give
That heavenly Guide to all that live.

Himself shall lose the way.

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