LOVE Thee!-oh, Thou, the world's eternal Sire! Whose palace is the vast infinity, Time, space, height, depth, oh God! are full of Thee, And sun-eyed seraphs tremble and admire. Love Thee!-but Thou art girt with vengeful fire, And mountains quake, and banded nations flee, And terror shakes the wide unfathom'd sea, When the heavens rock with thy tempestuous ire. Oh, Thou! too vast for thought to comprehend, That wast ere time,-shalt be when time is o'er; Ages and worlds begin-grow old-and end, Systems and suns thy changeless throne before, Commence and close their cycles :-lost, I bend To carth my prostrate soul, and shudder and adore! And Gilead linger'd on the shores of Jordan- Came the kings and fought, Fought the kings of Canaan, By Tannach, by Megiddo's waters, From the heavens that fought 'gainst Sisera, So trample thou, my soul, upon their might. Then stamp'd the clattering hoofs of prancing horses At the flight, at the flight of the mighty. Curse ye Meroz, saith the angel of the Lord, Curse, a twofold curse upon her dastard sons; For they came not to the succour of Jehovah, To the succour of Jehovah 'gainst the mighty. Above all women blest be Jael, O'er all the women blest, that dwell in tents. Water he ask'd-she gave him milk, The curded milk, in her costliest bowl. Her left hand to the nail she set, From the window she look'd forth, she cried, Thus perish all thine enemies, Jehovah; And those who love thee, like the sun, shine forth, The sun in all its glory.* From among all her lovers, she hath no comforter; Her friends have all dealt treacherously; they are become her foes. i. 1, 2. The ways of Sion mourn: none come up to her feasts, All her gates are desolate; and her Priests do sigh; Her virgins wail! herself, she is in bitterness.-i. 4. He hath pluck'd up his garden-hedge, He hath destroy'd his Temple; Jehovah hath forgotten made the solemn feast and Sabbath; And in the heat of ire He hath rejected King and Priest. The Lord his altar hath disdain'd, abhorred his Holy place, And to the adversary's hand given up his palace walls; Our foes shout in Jehovah's house, as on a festal day. ii. 7, 8. Her gates are sunk into the earth, he hath broke through her bars; Her Monarch and her Princes are now among the Heathen; The Law hath ceased; the Prophets find no vision from Jehovah. ii. 10. My eyes do fail with tears; and troubled are my bowels; My heart's blood gushes on the earth, for the daughter of my people; Children and suckling babes lie swooning in the squares They say unto their Mothers, where is corn and wine? They swoon as they were wounded, in the city squares; While glides the soul away into their Mother's bosom. ii. 11, 12. Even dragons, with their breasts drawn out, give suck unto their young; But cruel is my people's daughter, as the ostrich in the desert; The tongues of sucking infants to their palates cleave with thirst. DOWNFALL OF JERUSALEM. Young children ask for bread, and no man breaks FROM THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH. How solitary doth she sit, the many-peopled city! She is become a widow, the great among the Nations; The Queen among the provinces, how is she tributary! it for them; Those that fed on dainties are desolate in the streets; Those brought up in scarlet, even those embrace the dunghill. iv. 3, 4, 5. Behold, Jehovah, think to whom thou e'er hast deal'd thus! Weeping-weeps she all the night; the tears are Have women ever eat their young, babes fondled on her cheeks; in their hands? Have Priest and Prophet e'er been slain in the Lord's Holy place? In the above translation an attempt is made to preserve something of a rhythmical flow. It adheres to the original language, excepting where an occasional In the streets, upon the ground, lie slain the young word is, but rarely, inserted, for the sake of perspicuity. I and old; My virgins and my youth have fallen by the All flesh is at once in the sight of the Lord, And the doom of eternity hangs on his word! sword; In thy wrath thou'st slain them, thou hast had no mercy. Thou hast summon'd all my terrors, as to a solemn feast; None 'scaped, and none was left in Jehovah's day of wrath; All that mine arms have borne and nursed, the enemy hath slain. ii. 20. 1, 2. Remember, Lord what hath befallen, Look down on our reproach. Our heritage is given to strangers, Our home to foreigners, Our water have we drank for money, Our fuel hath its price-v. 1, 2, 3. We stretch our hands to Egypt, To Assyria for our bread. At our life's risk we gain our food, From the sword of desert robbers. Our skins are like an oven, parched, By the fierce heat of famine. Matrons in Sion have they ravish'd, Virgins in Judah's cities. Princes were hung up by the hand, And age had no respect. Young men are grinding at the mill, Boys faint 'neath loads of wood. The Elders from the gate have ceased, The young men from their music. The crown is fallen from her head, Woe! woe! that we have sinn'd. 'Tis therefore that our hearts are faint, Therefore our eyes are dim. For Sion's mountain desolate, The foxes walk on it. HYMNS FOR CHURCH SERVICE. SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT. THE chariot! the chariot! its wheels roll on fire As the Lord cometh down in the pomp of his ire: Self-moving it drives on its pathway of cloud, And the Heavens with the burthen of Godhead are bow'd. The glory! the glory! by myriads are pour'd The host of the Angels to wait on their Lord, And the glorified saints and the martyrs are there, And all who the palm-wreath of victory wear. The trumpet! the trumpet! the dead have all heard: Lo, the depths of the stone-cover'd charnel are stirr'd: From the sea, from the land, from the south and the north, The vast generations of men are come forth. The judgment the judgment! the thrones are all set, Where the Lamb and the white-vested Elders are met! Oh mercy! oh mercy! look down from above, Creator! on us thy sad children, with love! When beneath to their darkness the wicked are driven, May our sanctified souls find a mansion in heaven FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. LORD! Thou didst arise and say To the troubled waters 66 Peace," And the tempest died away, Down they sank, the foamy seas; And a calm and heaving sleep Spread o'er all the glassy deep, All the azure lake serene Like another Heaven was seen! Lord! Thy gracious word repeat Quell the fierce and changing crowd! FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY. THE angel comes, he comes to reap And who are they, in sheaves to bide And who are they, reserved in store O King of Mercy! grant us power QUINQUAGESIMA. LORD! we sit and cry to Thee, The glory of thy perfect day! Lord! we do not ask to gaze On our dim and earthly sun; But the light that still shall blaze When every star its course hath run: The light that gilds thy blest abode, The glory of the Lamb of God! |