ORD, let me know my term of days,
How soon my life will end :
The numerous train of ills disclose,
Which this frail state attend.
2 My life, thou know'st, is but a span,
A cipher sums my years;
And every man, in best estate,
But vanity appears.
3 Man, like a shadow, vainly walks,
With fruitless cares oppress'd;
He heaps up wealth, but cannot tell
By whom 'twill be possess'd.
4 Why then should I on worthless toys
With anxious cares attend?
On thee alone my steadfast hope
Shall ever, Lord, depend.
5 Lord, hear my cry, accept my tears,
And listen to my prayer,
Who sojourn like a stranger here,
As all my fathers were.
6 O spare me yet a little time;
My wasted strength restore,
Before I vanish quite from hence,
And shall be seen no more.
"Ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope."
EAR what the voice from heaven declares
To those in Christ who die:
Released from all their earthly cares,
They'll reign with him on high.
2 Then why lament departed friends,
Or shake at death's alarms?
Death's but the servant Jesus sends
To call us to his arms.
3 If sin be pardon'd, we're secure,
Death hath no sting beside;
The law gave sin its strength and power,
But Christ, our ransom, died.
4 The grave of all his saints he bless'd,
When in the grave he lay :
And, rising thence, their hopes he raised
To everlasting day.
5 Then, joyfully, while life we have,
To Christ, our life, we'll sing,
"Where is thy victory, O grave?
And where, O death, thy sting?"
260 "They which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him."
SLEEP in Jesus! blessed sleep!
From which none ever wakes to weep;
A calm and undisturb'd repose,
Unbroken by the last of foes.
2 Asleep in Jesus! O how sweet
To be for such a slumber meet;
With holy confidence to sing
That death has lost its painful sting!
3 Asleep in Jesus! peaceful rest!
Whose waking is supremely blest;
No fear, no woe shall dim that hour
That manifests the Saviour's power.
4 Asleep in Jesus! O for me
May such a blissful refuge be!
Securely shall my ashes lie,
Waiting the summons from on high.
5 Asleep in Jesus! far from thee
Thy kindred and their graves may be;
But there is still a blessèd sleep,
From which none ever wakes to weep.
"He shall enter into peace."
OT for the dead in Christ we weep;
Their sorrows now are o'er;
The sea is calm, the tempest past,
On that eternal shore.
2 Their peace is seal'd, their rest is sure,
Within that better home;
A while we weep and linger here,
Then follow to the tomb.
3 And though no vision'd dream of bliss
Nor trance of rapture show
Where, on the bosom of their God,
They rest from human woe;
4 Jesus! our shadowy path illume,
And teach the chasten'd mind
To welcome all that's left of good,
To all that's lost resign'd.
"Of such is the kingdom of heaven."
S the sweet flower that scents the morn,
But withers in the rising day;
Thus lovely was this infant's dawn,
Thus swiftly fled its life away.
2 It died ere its expanding soul
Had ever burnt with wrong desires,
Had ever spurn'd at heaven's control,
Or ever quenched its sacred fires.
3 It died to sin, it died to cares,
But for a moment felt the rod :
O mourner, such, the Lord declares,
Such are the children of our God.
"There is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that
thy children shall come again to their own
border."
ENDER Shepherd, thou hast still'd
Now thy little lamb's brief weeping;
Ah, how peaceful, pale, and mild
In its narrow bed 'tis sleeping,
And no sigh of anguish sore
Heaves that little bosom more.
2 In this world of care and pain,
Lord, thou wouldst no longer leave it ;
To the sunny heavenly plain
Thou dost now with joy receive it;
Clothed in robes of spotless white,
Now it dwells with thee in light.
3 Ah, Lord Jesus, grant that we
Where it lives may soon be living,
And the lovely pastures see
That its heavenly food are giving;
Then the gain of death we prove,
Though they take what most we love.
For those at Sea.
"The bright and morning star.”
TAR of peace, to wanderers weary,
Bright the beams that smile on me;
Cheer the pilot's vision dreary,
2 Star of hope, gleam on the billow,
Bless the soul that sighs for thee,
Bless the sailor's lonely pillow,
Far, far at sea.
3 Star of faith, when winds are mocking
All his toil, he flies to thee;
Save him, on the billows rocking,
Far, far at sea.
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