2 While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
"Lord, why was I a guest?
3 "Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while there's room;
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?"
4 'Twas the same love that spread the feast,
That sweetly forced us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perish'd in our sin.
5 Pity the nations, O our God!
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious Word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.
6 We long to see Thy churches full,
That all the chosen race
May with one voice, and heart, and soul,
Sing Thy redeeming grace.
Divine Love remembered.
F human kindness meets return,
And owns the grateful tie;
If tender thoughts within us burn,"
When earthly friends are nigh,
2 Oh! shall not warmer accents tell
The gratitude we owe
To Him who died our fears to quell,
Our more than orphan woe!
3 While yet His anguish'd soul survey'd
Those pangs He would not flee,
What love His latest words display'd--
"Meet and remember Me!"
4 Remember Thee! Thy death, Thy shame
Our hearts' sad load to bear!
Oh! memory, leave no other name
But His recorded there!
Gerard Thomas Noel, 1813.
IN We keep the sacred feast,
memory of the Saviour's love,
Where every humble contrite heart
Is made a welcome guest.
2 By faith we take the bread of life,
With which our souls are fed;
And cup, in token of His blood
That was for sinners shed.
3 Under his banner thus we sing
The wonders of His love,
And thus anticipate by faith
The heavenly feast above.
Thomas Cotterill, 1812;
Richard Whittingham, 1835.
Feeding in green Pastures.
1 HOU whom my soul admires above All earthly joy and earthly love,
Tell me, dear Shepherd, let me know,
Where doth Thy choicest pasture grow?
2 Where is the shadow of that rock
That from the sun defends Thy flock?
Fain would I feed among Thy sheep,
Among them rest, among them sleep.
3 The footsteps of Thy flock I see;
Thy sweetest pastures here they be:
A wondrous feast of love appears,
Bought with Thy wounds and groans and tears.
4 His dearest flesh He makes my bread,
For wine His richest blood is shed:
Here to these hills my soul will come,
Till my Beloved lead me home.
Christ the King at His Table.
ET Him embrace my soul, and prove
Mine interest in His heavenly love;
The voice that tells me, "Thou art mine,"
Exceeds the blessings of the vine.
2 Jesus, allure me by Thy charms,
My soul shall fly into Thine arms!
Our wandering feet Thy favours bring
To the fair chambers of the King.
3 Though in ourselves deform'd we are,
And black as Kedar's tents appear,
Yet, when we put Thy beauties on,
Fair as the courts of Solomon.
4 While at His table sits the King,
He loves to see us smile and sing;
Our graces are our best perfume,
And breathe like spikenard round the room.
5 As myrrh new bleeding from the tree,
Such is a dying Christ to me;
And while He makes my soul His guest,
My bosom, Lord, shall be Thy rest.
6 No beams of cedar or of fir
Can with Thy courts on earth compare;
And here we wait, until Thy love
Raise us to nobler seats above.
1 LORD, at Thy table I behold
The wonders of Thy grace;
But most of all admire that I
Should find a welcome place:
2 I that am all defiled with sin,
A rebel to my God:
I that have crucified His Son,
And trampled on His blood.
3 What strange surprising grace is this,
That such a soul has room!
My Saviour takes me by the hand,
My Jesus bids me come.
4 Had I ten thousand hearts, dear Lord,
I'd give them all to Thee;
Had I ten thousand tongues, they all
Should join the harmony.
Delight in Communion with Jesus.
ORD, what a heaven of saving grace
Shines through the beauties of Thy face,
And lights our passions to a flame!
Lord, how we love Thy charming name!
2 When I can say, "My God is mine;"
When I can feel Thy glories shine;
I tread the world beneath my feet,
And all that earth calls good or great.
3 While such a scene of sacred joys
Our raptured eyes and souls employs,
Here we could sit, and gaze away
A long, an everlasting day.
4 Well, we shall quickly pass the night,
To the fair coasts of perfect light;
Then shall our joyful senses rove
O'er the dear object of our love.
5 There shall we drink full draughts of bliss,
And pluck new life from heavenly trees:
Yet now and then, dear Lord, bestow
A drop of heaven on worms below.
6 Send comforts down from Thy right hand,
While we pass through this barren land;
And in Thy temple let us see
A glimpse of love, a glimpse of Thee.
The Presence of God desired.
THOU the hope of Israel's host,
Their strength, their helper, and their
boast;
How oft their Saviour hast Thou been,
In times of trouble and of sin!
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