Retreat beneath his wings,
And in his grace confide;
This more exalts the King of kings
Than all your work beside*.
Grace issues from his throne
'I want no more,
Confesses he has none.
1 GRACE, triumphant in the throne,
Scorns a rival, reigns alone!
Come, and bow beneath her sway,
Cast your idol works away.
Works of man, when made his plea,
Never shall accepted be;
Fruits of pride (vain-glorious worm!)
Are the best he can perform.
2 Self, the god his soul adores,
Influences all his pow'rs;
Jesus is a slighted name,
Self-advancement all his aim.
But when God the judge shall come,
To pronounce the final doom,
Then for rocks and hills to hide
All his works, and all his pride!
3 Still the boasting heart replies
What! the worthy and the wise,
Friends to temperance and peace
Have not these a righteousness?
Banish ev'ry vain pretence
Built on human excellence;
Perish ev'ry thing in man,
But the grace that never can.
1 SIN, when view'd by Scripture-light,
Is a horrid, hateful sight:
But, when seen in Satan's glass,
Then it wears a pleasing face.
2 When the Gospel-trumpet sounds,
When I think how grace abounds,
When I feel sweet peace within,
Then I'd rather die than sin.
3 When the cross I view by faith,
Sin is madness, poison, death;
Tempt me not, 'tis all in vain,
Sure I ne'er can yield again.
4 Satan, for a while debarr'd,
When he finds me off my guard,
Puts his glass before my eyes;
Quickly other thoughts arise.
5 What before excited fears,
Rather pleasing now appears;
If a sin, it seems so small,
Or, perhaps, no sin at all.
6 Often thus, through sin's deceit,
Grief, and shame, and loss, I meet;
Like a fish my soul mistook,
Saw the bait, but not the hook.
7 O my Lord! what shall I say?
How can I presume to pray?
Not a word have I to plead;
Sins like mine are black indeed!
8 Made by past experience wise,
Let me learn thy word to prize;
Taught by what I've felt before,
Let me Satan's glass abhor.
LXXVII.-Are there few that shall be saved?
DESTRUCTION's dang'rous road,
What multitudes pursue!
While that which leads the soul to God
Is known or sought by few.
Believers enter in
By Christ, the living gate;
But they who will not leave their sin
Complain it is too strait.
If self must be deny'd,
And sin forsaken quite,
They rather choose the way that's wide,
And strive to think it right.
Encompass'd by a throng,
On numbers they depend;
So many surely can't be wrong,
And miss a happy end.
But numbers are no mark
That men will right be found;
A few were sav'd in Noah's ark*,
For many millions drown'd.
6 Obey the Gospel-call,
And enter while you may;
The flock of Christ is always small†,
And none are safe but they.
Lord, open sinners' eyes,
Their awful state to see;
And make them, ere the storm arise,
To thee for safety flee.
LXXVIII.-The Sluggard.
1 THE wishes that the sluggard frames ‡,
Of course must fruitless prove;
With folded arms he stands and dreams,
But has no heart to move.
Prov. vi. 10. ; xxiv. 30.; xxii. 13.; xx. 4.
2 His field from others may be known,
The fence is broken through;
The ground with weeds is overgrown,
And no good crop in view.
3 No hardship he, or toil, can bear,
No difficulty meet;
He wastes his hours at home for fear
Of lions in the street.
4 What wonder, then, if sloth and sleep
Distress and famine bring!
Can he in harvest hope to reap,
Who will not sow in spring?
5 'Tis often thus, in soul-concerns,
We Gospel-sluggards see,
Who, if a wish would serve their turns,
Might true believers be.
6 But when the preacher bids them watch,
And seek, and strive, and pray *;
At ev'ry poor excuse they catch,—
A lion in the way!'
7 To use the means of grace, how loth!
We call them still in vain;
They yield to their beloved sloth,
And fold their arms again.
8 Dear Saviour, let thy pow'r appear,
The outward call to aid;
These drowsy souls can only hear
The voice that wakes the dead.
LXXIX.-Not in Word, but in Power.
1 How soon the Saviour's gracious call
Disarm'd the rage of bloody Saul+!
Jesus, the knowledge of thy name
Changes the lion to a lamb!
* 1 Cor. ix. 24; Luke xiii. 24.
2 Zaccheus, when he knew the Lord,
What he had gain'd by wrong restor❜d;
And, of the wealth he priz'd before,
He gave the half to feed the poor
3 The woman who so vile had been †,
When brought to weep o'er pardon'd sin
Was from her evil ways estrang'd,
And shew'd that grace her heart had chang'd.
4 And can we think the pow'r of grace Is lost by change of time and place? Then it was mighty, all allow,
And is it but a notion now?
5 Can they whom pride and passion sway,
Who mammon and the world obey,
In envy or contention live,
Presume that they indeed believe? ·
6 True faith unites to Christ the root,
By him producing holy fruit;
And they, who no such fruit can shew,
Still on the stock of nature grow.
7 Lord, let thy word effectual prove,
To work in us obedient love!
each one who hears it dread
A name to live, and yet be dead‡.
Book I. Hymns 8, 20, 85, 87, 91, 104, 125, 139,
Hymns 34, 49, 86, 91, 99.
↑ Luke vii. 47. + Rev. iii. 1.
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