WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
Now 'tis our privilege to find
A short release from all our care;
To leave the world's pursuits behind,
And breathe a more celestial air.
O Lord, those earthly thoughts destroy,
Which cling too fondly to our breast;
Through grace prepare us to enjoy
The coming hours of hallowed rest.
And when Thy word shall set us free
From every burden that we bear,
Oh! may we rise to rest with Thee,
And hail a brighter Sabbath there.
SWEET is the last, the parting ray,
That ushers placid evening in,
When with the still, expiring day,
The Sabbath's peaceful hours begin;
How grateful to the anxious breast,
The sacred hours of holy rest!
Hushed is the tumult of the day,
And worldly cares and business cease,
While soft the vesper breezes play,
To hymn the glad return of peace;
Delightful season, kindly given,
To turn the wandering thoughts to heaven.
Oft as this peaceful hour shall come,
Lord, raise my thoughts from earthly things,
And bear them to my heavenly home,
On faith and hope's celestial wings,—
Till the last gleam of life decay,
In one eternal Sabbath-day!
WATCHMAN, WHAT OF THE NIGHT?
SAY, watchman, what of the night?
Do the dews of the morning fall?
Have the orient skies a border of light,
Like the fringe of a funeral pall?
"The night is fast waning on high,
And soon shall the darkness flee,
And the morn shall spread o'er the blushing sky,
And bright shall its glories be.”
But, watchman, what of the night,
When sorrow and pain are mine,
And the pleasures of life, so sweet and bright,
No longer around me shine?
"That night of sorrow thy soul
May surely prepare to meet,
But away shall the clouds of thy heaviness roll,
And the morning of joy be sweet."
But, watchman, what of the night,
When the arrow of death is sped,
And the grave, which no glimmering star can light,
Shall be my sleeping bed?
"That night is near, and the cheerless tomb
Shall keep thy body in store,
Till the morn of eternity rise on the gloom,
And night shall be no more!"
STAR of the morn, whose placid ray
Beamed mildly o'er yon sacred hill,
-While whispering zephyrs seemed to say,
As silence slept, and earth was still,
Hail, harbinger of Gospel light!
Dispel the shades of Nature's night!
I saw thee rise on Salem's towers,
I saw thee shine on Gospel lands,
And Gabriel summoned all his powers
And waked to ecstasy his bands;
Sweet cherubs hailed thy rising ray,
And sang the dawn of Gospel day!
Shine, lovely star, on every clime,
For bright thy peerless beauties be,
Gild with thy beam the wing of time,
And shed thy rays from sea to sea;
Then shall the world from darkness rise,
Millennial glories cheer our eyes!
THE scene was more beautiful far, to my eye,
Than if day in its pride had arrayed it ;
The land-breeze blew mild, and the azure-arched sky
Looked pure as the Spirit that made it.
The murmur arose, as I silently gazed
On the shadowy waves' playful motion;
From the dim distant isle till the beacon-fire blazed
Like a star in the midst of the ocean.
No longer the joy of the sailor-boy's breast
Was heard in his wildly-breathed numbers;
The sea-bird had flown to her wave-girded nest,
The fisherman sunk to his slumbers.
I sighed as I looked from the hills' gentle slope;
All hushed was the billows' commotion;
And I thought that the beacon looked lovely as Hope,
That star of life's tremulous ocean.
The time is long past, and the scene is afar,
Yet, when my head rests on its pillow,
Will memory sometimes rekindle the star
That blazed on the breast of the billow.
In life's closing hour, when the trembling soul flies,
And death stills the soul's last emotion,
O then may the seraph of mercy arise,
Like a star on eternity's ocean.
ADVENT OF THE MESSIAH, AND GLORIES OF HIS KINGDOM.
BEHOLD my Servant! see him rise
Exalted in my might!
Him have I chosen, and in him
I place supreme delight.
On him, in rich effusion poured,
My Spirit shall descend;
My truth and judgment he shall show
To earth's remotest end.
Gentle and still shall be his voice,
No threats from him proceed;
The smoking flax he shall not quench,
Nor break the bruisèd reed.
The feeble spark to flames he'll raise;
The weak will not despise;
Judgment he shall bring forth to truth,
And make the fallen rise.
The progress of his zeal and pow'r
Shall never know decline,
Till foreign lands and distant isles
Receive the law divine.
He who erected heav'n's bright arch,
And bade the planets roll,
Who peopled all the climes of earth,
And formed the human soul.
Thus saith the Lord, Thee have I raised,
My prophet thee instal;
In right I've raised thee, and in strength
I'll succour whom I call.
I will establish with the lands
A covenant in thee,
To give the Gentile nations light,
And set the pris'ners free,
Asunder burst the gates of brass;
The iron fetters fall;
And gladsome light and liberty
Are straight restored to all.
I am the Lord, and by the name
Of great JEHOVAH known;
No idol shall usurp my praise,
Nor mount into my throne.
Lo! former scenes, predicted once,
Conspicuous rise to view;
And future scenes, predicted now,
Shall be accomplished too.
Sing to the Lord in joyful strains!
Let earth His praise resound,
Ye who upon the ocean dwell,
And fill the isles around!
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