2 Let us hail the joyful season:
Let us hail the rising ray:
When the Lord appears, there's reason
To expect a glorious day:
At his presence
Gloom and darkness fly away.
3 While the foe becomes more daring;
While he enters like a flood:
God, the Saviour, is preparing
Means to spread his truth abroad:
Every language
Soon shall tell the love of God.
4 God of Jacob, high and glorious,
Let thy people see thy hand;
Let the Gospel be victorious,
Through the world, in every land:
And the idols,
Perish, Lord, at thy command.
86. Prayer for the spread of the Gospel. L. M. 1 THY people, Lord, who trust thy word, And wait the smilings of thy face, Assemble round thy mercy seat, To plead the promise of thy grace. 2 We consecrate these hours to thee, Thy sovereign mercy to intreat; And feel some animating hope, We shall divine acceptance meet. 3 Hast thou not sworn to give thy Son To be a light to Gentile lands,
To open the sin-closed eye,
And loose the exiled prisoner's bands?
4 Hast thou not said, from sea to sea
His vast dominions shall extend?
That every tongue shall call him Lord,
And every knee before him bend.
5 Now let the happy time appear,
The time to favour Zion come:
Send forth thy heralds far and near,
To call thy banished children home.
4 My soul, no more attempt to draw
Thy life and comfort from the law;
Fly to the hope the gospel gives;
The man that trusts the promise lives.
Law and Gospel distinguished.
1 HERE, Lord, my soul convicted stands,
Of breaking all thy ten commands:
And on me justly might'st thou pour
Thy wrath in one eternal shower.
2 But thanks to God, its loud alarms
Have warned me of approaching harms :
And now my woes and wants I see ;
Lost and undone, I come to thee.
3 'Tis not my fig-leaf righteousness,
That can thy broken law redress:
But in thy gospel plan I see,
There's hope of pardon e'en for me.
4 Here I behold with wonder, Lord,
The honours of thy law restored;
When Christ, on the atoning day,
Did for my life, a ransom pay.
5 Amazing wisdom, power, and love,
Displayed to rebels from above!
Do thou, O Lord, my faith increase,
To trust, and love thy plan of grace.
1 COME, ye that know and fear the Lord,
And lift your souls above;
Let all the saints with one accord,
Now sing, "Our God is love."
2 His cov'nant fixed in heav'n behold,
Which hell can never move;
This makes the humbled sinner bold,
To sing "Our God is love."
3 This precious truth his word declares,
And all his mercies prove;
Jesus, the Gift of gifts appears,
To shew" Our God is love."
4 Thousands, as vile and base as we, Surround the throne above;
The grace that changed, has tuned their hearts,
To sing "Our God is love."
5 Soon shall we meet the happy throng,
No more from God to rove;
But join the everlasting song,
And sing, "Our God is love."
Love of God in Christ.
CHRIST and his members ever stood
A glorious mystic man;
Loved with the highest love of God
Before the world began.
2 The chosen people were of old
Pure in Jehovah's sight,
And never did he them behold
But with a vast delight.
3 Although the Lord of earth and sky
Knew what we all should prove,
He on the Saviour kept his eye,
And rested in his love.
4 Thus in the arms of sov'reign grace
He clasped the chosen seed,
Determined evermore to bless
The members with the Head.
1 YE, who the highest joys would prove,
O think on everlasting love;
Before all worlds it did exist,
In great Jehovah's glorious breast.
2 Eternal love joined Abram's seed
To Jesus their eternal Head;
And in Him gave them all things good,
Eternal life, immortal food.
3 This love abundantly confirms
The wav'ring faith of feeble worms;
O, 'tis an everlasting Rock,
For all the dear Redeemer's flock.
4 Now, Lord, this precious love impart,
To every broken, contrite heart;
May each repenting sinner prove
The joys of everlasting love.
1 THE God of glory dwells on high,
And rules the armies of the sky,
Ten thousand thousand round him stand
Observant of their King's command.
2 The God of glory, moved by love,
Descends in mercy from above;
And He before whom angels bow,
Is found a man of grief below.
3 This love is great above all thought,
Its length and breadth in vain are sought;
No tongue can tell its depth and height,
The love of God is infinite.
4 But though his love no measure knows,
The Saviour to his people shews
Enough to give them joy, when known;
Enough to make their hearts his own.
Love of God immutable.
1 GREAT Jehovah's love endureth, Then away with all complaints;
His unchanging love secureth
Crowns of glory for the saints.
2 May we all be ever learning,
How it shines in Christ the Lamb,
Never knows a shade of turning,
But in him abides the same.
3 This great truth yields heav'nly pleasure,
To the feeble and the faint,
Ever proves a solid treasure,
To the weak and weary saint.
4 What a spring of consolation
Is the Lord's abounding grace,
And what blissful contemplation,
It affords the chosen race!
5 When surrounded with temptation, They a faithful friend have got, For the rock of their salvation
Is a God that changeth not.
Jesus is ours, we have a true friend,
Whose goodness endures the same to the end:
Our comforts may vary, our frames may decline
We cannot miscarry, our aid is divine.
2 Though God may delay to shew us his light,
And heaviness may endure for a night;
Yet joy, in the morning, shall surely abound,
No shadow of turning in Jesus is found.
3 The hills may depart, and mountains remove,
But faithful thou art, O Fountain of love,
The Father hath graven our names on thy hands;
Our building in heaven eternally stands.
4 A moment he hid the light of his face;
Yet firmly decreed to save us by grace :
And tho' he reproved us, and still may reprove,
For ever he loved us, and ever will love.
How small thy faith appears!
But greater, Lord, thou art,
Than all my doubts and fears:
Did Jesus once upon me shine?
Then Jesus is for ever mine.
Unchangeable his will,
Though dark may be my frame;
His loving heart is still
Eternally the same :
My soul through many changes goes ;
His love no variation knows.
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