1 GREAT God! in vain man's narrow view
Attempts to look thy nature through;
Our labouring powers with reverence own
Thy glories never can be known.
2 Not the high seraph's mighty thought,
Who countless years his God has sought,
Such wond'rous height or depth can find,
Or fully trace thy boundless mind.
3 Yet, Lord, thy kindness deigns to show
Enough for mortal minds to know;
While wisdom, goodness, power divine,
Through all thy works and conduct shine.
4 0! may our souls with rapture trace
Thy works of nature and of grace;
Explore thy sacred name, and still
Press on to know and do thy will.
1 GOD is a name my soul adores,
The almighty THREE, th' eternal ONE!
Nature and grace, with all their powers,
Confess the infinite unknown.
2 Thy voice produced the seas and spheres,
Bid sun, and moon, and stars to shine;
But nothing like THYSELF appears,
Through all these spacious works of thine.
3 While restless nature dies and grows;
From change to change the creatures run;
Thy BEING no succession knows,
And all thy vast designs are one.
4 Thrones and dominions round thee fall,
And worship in submissive forms;
Thy presence shakes this lower ball,
This little dwelling place of worms.
5 How shall we sinful mortals dare
To scan thy glory or thy grace?
Beneath thy feet we lie so far,
And see but shadows of thy face!
6 Who can behold the blazing light?
Who can approach consuming flame?
None but thy wisdom knows thy might,
None but thy word can speak thy name.
1 GREAT God! how infinite art thou !
What worthless worms are we !
Let the whole race of creatures bow,
And pay their praise to thee.
2 Thy throne eternal ages stood,
Ere seas or stars were made:
Thou art the ever-living God,
Were all the nations dead.
3 Nature and time quite naked lie
To thine immense survey,
From the formation of the sky,
To the great burning day.
4 Eternity, with all its years,
Stands present in thy view;
To thee there's nothing old appears :
Great God! there's nothing new.
5 Our lives through various scenes are drawn,
And vexed with trifling cares,
While thine eternal thought moves on
Thine undisturbed affairs.
6 Thine essence is a vast abyss,
Which angels cannot sound,
An ocean of infinities
Where all our thoughts are drowned.
1 ETERNAL God! Almighty cause
Of earth, and seas, and worlds unknown; All things are subject to thy laws,
All things depend on thee alone.
2 Thou, Lord, hast been thy children's God,
All-powerful, wise, benign, and just,
In every age their safe abode,
Their hope, their refuge, and their trust.
3 Before thy word gave nature birth,
Or spread the starry heavens abroad,
Or formed the varied face of earth,
From everlasting thou art God.
4 Great Father of eternity,
How short are ages in thy sight!
A thousand years how swift they fly,
Like one short silent watch of night.
1 THROUGH endless years thou art the same, The ever-living God!
Ages to come shall know thy name,
And spread thy praise abroad.
2 Soon shall this goodly frame of things,
Formed by thy powerful hand,
Be like a vesture laid aside,
And changed at thy command.
3 But thine eternal nature, Lord,
No length of time can waste,
Thy wisdom, power, and faithfulness,
From age to age shall last.
4 Thou, to the children of thy love,
Shalt endless blessings give:
Th' unchanging God shall be their trust,
From whom they grace receive.
IN all my vast concerns with thee,
In vain my soul would try
To shun thy presence, Lord, or flee
The notice of thine eye.
2 Thine all-pervading sight surveys
My rising and my rest,
My public walks, my private ways,
The secrets of my breast!
3 My thoughts lie open to the Lord,
Before they're formed within ;
And ere my lips pronounce the word,
He knows the sense I mean.
4 Each golden hour of beaming light,
Is guided by his rays;
And dark affliction's midnight gloom
A present God surveys.
5 0 wond'rous knowledge, deep and high!
Where can a creature hide?
Within thy circling arms I lie,
Beset on every side.
6 So let thy grace surround me still,
And like a bulwark prove,
To guard my soul from every ill,
Secured by sovereign love.
1 ONE glance of thine, eternal Lord,
Pierces all nature through;
Nor heaven, nor earth, nor hell afford
A shelter from thy view!
2 Though greatly from myself concealed,
Thou see'st my inward frame
To thee I always stand revealed,
Exactly as I am.
3 Since therefore I can hardly bear
What in myself I see;
How vile and black must I appear,
Most holy God, to thee?
4 But since my Saviour stands between,
In garments dy'd in blood,
'Tis he, instead of me, is seen
When I approach to God.
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