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2 Though conscience, fiercest of my foes,
Swells with remembered guilt my woes,
And memory points, with busy pain,
To grace and mercy given in vain,
Though every thought has power to kill,
I love Thee, Lord! I love Thee still.
3 Oh! by the pangs thyself hast borne,
The ruffian's blow, the tyrant's scorn,
By these my pangs, whose healing smart
Thy grace hath planted in my heart,
I know, I feel thy bounteous will;
Thou lov'st me, Lord! Thou lov'st me still.

HYMN 148. c. M.

Love beyond measure.

1 THY ceaseless unexhausted love,

Unmerited and free,

Delights our evil to remove.
And helps our misery.

2 Thou waitest to be gracious still,
Thou dost with sinners bear;
That saved, we may thy goodness feel,
And all thy grace declare.

3 Thy goodness and thy truth to me, To every soul abound:

A vast, unfathomable sea,

Where all our thoughts are drown'd.

4 Its streams the whole creation reach, So plenteous is the store;

Enough for all, enough for each,
Enough for evermore.

5 Faithful, O Lord, thy mercies are;
A rock that cannot move :
A thousand promises declare
Thy constancy of love.

6 Throughout the universe it reigns,
Unalterably sure;

And while the truth of God remains,
The goodness must endure.

HYMN 149. L. M.

The counsels of God.

1 THY ways, O Lord, with wise design,
Are framed upon thy throne above,
And every dark or bending line
Meets in the centre of thy love.

2 With feeble light, and half obscure,
Poor mortals thy arrangements view,
Not knowing that the least are sure,
The most mysterious just and true.
3 My favor'd soul shall meekly learn
To lay her reason at thy throne;
Too weak thy secrets to discern,
I'll trust Thee for my guide alone.

HYMN 150. P. M.

Retrospect of the year.

1 TIME by moments steals away,
First the hour, and then the day;
Small the daily loss appears,
Yet it soon amounts to years—
Thus another year is flown,
And is now no more our own
Though it brought or promised good)
Than the years before the flood.

2 But each year, let none forget,
Finds and leaves us deep in debt;
Favours from the Lord received,
Sins that have the Spirit grieved,
Marked by God's unerring hand,
In his book recorded stand:
Who can tell the vast amount
Justly placed to our account?

3 We have nothing, Lord! to pay;
Take, oh! take our guilt away;
Self-condemned, on Thee we call,
Freely, Lord! forgive us all.
If we see another year

May we spend it in thy fear!
All its days devote to Thee,
Living for eternity.

HYMN 151. P. M.

For the Epiphany.

1 'Tis enough-the hour is come; Now within the silent tomb Man may lay him down to rest; Christ will raise him to be blest. 2 Lo! thy mercies oft of old By thy chosen seers foretold, Faithful now and stedfast prove, God of truth, and God of love! 3 Lo! the nations bow the knee, Sun of Righteousness! to Thee; And the realms of distant kings Own the healing of thy wings. 4 Those, whom death had overspread With his dark and dreary shade, Lift their eyes, and from afar Hail the light of Jacob's star. 5 See the beams benignly shed, Shine o'er Sion's favour'd head: Never may they hence remove, God of truth, and God of love!

1

HYMN 152. s. M.

The uncertainty of life.

TO-MORROW, Lord! is thine,
Lodged in thy sovereign hand,
And if its sun arise and shine,
It shines by thy command.

2 The present moment flies,
And bears our life away;
Oh! make thy servants truly wise
That they may live to-day!

3

4

One thing demands our care—
Be that one thing pursued,

Lest, slighted now, we never hear
Thy pardoning voice renewed.

Teach us thy name to fear,
Spread an alarm abroad;
And cry in every careless ear,
"Prepare to meet thy God!"

HYMN 153. P. M.

"That Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith."

1 VISIT, Lord! thy habitation,

Breathe thy peace on all therein;
Peace, the foretaste of salvation,
Peace, the seal of cancelled sin.

2 Now thy love-infusing Spirit
Shed on every heart abroad,
Raise, through thy redeeming merit,
Slaves of sin to sons of God.

3 Prince of Peace! be ever near us,
Fix in every heart thy home;
In this sweet communion cheer us;
Quickly let thy kingdom come.

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