BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HAVE NOT SEEN. 41
Give me a heart from envy free,
A heart o'erflowed with love,
That I may praise for all the joy
That cometh from above.
Grant me not only to possess
Contentment with my lot,
But sympathy and joy with those
Who have what I have not.
Grant me to love mankind so dear,
That when their good I see,
Each blessing, as it lights on them,
May fall, a joy, on me!
'Tis good to weep with those who weep,
But oft the tears we shed
Are selfish, and self-pitying tears,
Though dropped o'er others' dead.
But in rejoicing with the glad,
The troubles of our lot
Self-with its murmurs and its wants
Must be, in love, forgot.
Then, O my God, let me rejoice
When others' joy I see,
Even although upon my life
The sunlight may not be!
"BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HAVE NOT SEEN, AND YET HAVE BELIEVED."
WE saw Thee not, when Thou didst tread,
O Saviour, this our sinful earth;
Nor heard Thy voice restore the dead,
And waken them to second birth;
Yet we believe that Thou didst come,
And quit for us Thy glorious home.
We were not with the faithful few,
Who stood Thy bitter cross around;
Nor heard Thy prayer for those who slew,
Nor felt that earthquake rock the ground.
We saw no spear-wound pierce Thy side,
But we believe that Thou hast died.
THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR.
No angel's message met our ear,
On that first glorious Easter day;
"The Lord is risen. He is not here;
"Come see the place where Jesus lay."
But we believe that Thou didst quell
The banded powers of earth and hell.
We saw Thee not return on high;
And now, our longing sight to bless,
No ray of glory from the sky
Shines down upon our wilderness;
But we believe that Thou art there,
And seek Thee, Lord, in praise and prayer.
THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR.
THE last sand from time's hour-glass
Shall soon disappear,
And like vapour shall vanish
This old rolling sphere.
On the floor like the chaff-stream
In the dark wintry day,
From the fan of destruction
Shall suns drift away.
And the meteors of glory
Which 'wilder the wise,
Only gleam till we open
In true worlds our eyes.
But aloft in God's heaven,
There blazeth a star,
And I live while I'm watching
Its light from afar.
From its lustre immortal
My soul caught the spark,
Which shall beam on undying
When sunshine is dark.
So transforming its radiance
Its strength so benign,
Dull clay burns a ruby,
And man grows divine.
To the zenith ascended,
From Joseph's dark tomb,
Star of Jesse! so rivet
My gaze through the gloom,
That Thy beauty imbibing,
My dross may refine,
Till in splendour reflected
I burn and I shine.
"HIDE ME UNDER THE SHADOW OF THY WINGS."
STILL nigh me, O my Saviour, stand,
And guard in fierce temptation's hour;
Hide in the hollow of Thy hand;
Show forth in me Thy saving power:
Still be Thine arm my sure defence,
Nor earth nor hell shall pluck me thence.
In suffering be Thy love my peace!
In weakness be Thy love my power!
And when the storms of life shall cease,
Jesus, in that important hour,
In death, as life, be Thou my guide,
And save me, who for me hast died.
wind that waves
ass-green graves. surrection life
he end of strife;
e vict'ry Thou hast won
Thy will be done!
e in this wilderness below,
Before we go,
To guide, to comfort, and defend,
Thou heavenly Friend!
And when the awful shore is passed
And safe at last,
We shall, within the happy place,
Declare Thy grace.
Then, then the song through heaven shall ring
None else can sing;
While angels bending to the ground
Drink in the sound.
O, hallowed be Thy Name on earth
Round every hearth!
Though Thou art hidden in the skies
We're in Thine eyes;
Thy "ever plenty-dropping hand"
Makes fat the land;
And that our prayers ascend to Thee,
And answered be,
Triumphed hast Thou o'er death and hell
And rent the veil ;
And made us priests and heirs to God
All by Thy blood.
t, with an arrowy and unwavering rus
Dashed hissing earthward. Soon the rivers ro
And roaring fled their channels; and calm lakes
Awoke exulting from their lethargy,
And poured destruction on their peaceful shores.
The lightning flickered in the deluged air,
And feebly through the shout of gathering waves
Muttered the stifled thunder. Day nor night
Ceased the descending streams; and if the gloom
A little brightened, when the lurid morn
Rose on the starless midnight, 'twas to show
The lifting up of waters. Bird and beast
Forsook the flooded plains, and wearily
The shivering multitudes of human doomed
Toiled up before the insatiate element.
Oceans were blent, and the leviathan
Was borne aloft on the ascending seas
To where the eagle nestled. Mountains now
Were the sole land-marks, and their sides were clothed
With clustering myriads, from the weltering waste
Whose surges clasped them, to their topmost peaks,
Swathed in the stooping cloud. The hand of death
Smote millions as they climbed; yet denser grew
The crowded nations, as the encroaching waves
Narrowed their little world.
Did no man aid his fellow.
And in that hour
Love of life
Was the sole instinct; and the strong-limbed son,
With imprecations, smote the palsied sire
That clung to him for succour. Woman trod
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