313.-6 8s.

Thou hast beset me behind and before.

O LORD! in me there lieth nought
But to thy search revealed lies:
For when I sit, Thou markest it,

No less, Thou notest when I rise;
Yea, closest closet of my thought

Hath open windows to thine eyes.

Thou walkest with me when I walk;
When to my bed for rest I go
I find Thee there and everywhere;

Not youngest thought in me doth grow, No, not one word I cast to talk

But yet unuttered Thou dost know.

If forth I march, Thou goest before,
If back I turn, Thou com'st behind;
So forth nor back, thy guard I lack :
Nay, on me too thy hand I find.
Well I thy wisdom may adore

But never reach with earthy mind.

To shun thy notice, flee thine eye,

O! whither might I take my way? To starry sphere? thy throne is there! To dead men's undelightsome day? There is thy walk, and there to lie Unknown, in vain I should assay.

O Sun! whom light nor flight can match, Suppose, thy lightful flightful wings Thou lend to me, and I could flee

As far as thee the evening brings? Even led to west He would me catch, Nor should I lurk with western things!

Do thou thy best, O secret night,

In sable veil to cover me; Thy sable veil shall vainly fall;

With day unmasked my night shall be! For night is day, and darkness light, O Father of all lights, to Thee!

314.-L.M.

All nations before Him are as nothing.

YE weak inhabitants of clay,

Ye trifling insects of a day,

Low in your native dust bow down

Before the Eternal's awful throne.

With trembling heart, with solemn eye,
Behold Jehovah seated high;

And search, what worthy sacrifice

Your hands can give, your thoughts devise.

Let Lebanon her cedars bring
To blaze before the Sovereign King,
And all the beasts that on it feed
As victims at his altar bleed.

Loud let ten thousand trumpets sound
And call remotest nations round,
Assembled on the crowded plains
Princes and people, kings and swains ;—

Joined with the living let the dead
Rising the face of earth o'erspread,
And while his praise unites their tongues,
Let angels echo back the songs!

The drop that from the bucket falls,
The dust that hangs upon the scales,
Is more to sky and earth and sea,
Than all this pomp, O God, to Thee.

315.-L.M.

Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?

CAN creatures to perfection find
The Eternal, Uncreated Mind?
Or can the largest stretch of thought
Measure and search his nature out?

"Tis high as heaven,-'tis deep as hell,
And what can mortals know or tell?
His glory spreads beyond the sky
And all the shining worlds on high.

But man, vain man, would fain be wise,
Born like a wild young colt, he flies
Through all the follies of his mind,
And smells and snuffs the empty wind.

God is a King of power unknown;
Firm are the orders of his throne,
If He resolves, who dares oppose,
Or ask him why or what He does?

He wounds the heart, and He makes whole;
He calms the tempest of the soul;
When He shuts up in long despair,
Who can remove the heavy bar?

He frowns, and darkness veils the moon,
The fainting sun grows dim at noon;
The pillars of Heaven's starry roof
Tremble and start at his reproof.

He gave the vaulted heaven its form,
The crooked serpent and the worm;
He breaks the billows with his breath,
And smites the sons of pride to death.

These are a portion of his ways;
But who shall dare describe his face?
Who shall endure his light and stand
To hear the thunders of his hand?

316.-C.M.

I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.

WHEN the Eternal bows the skies
To visit earthly things,

With scorn divine He turns his eyes
From towers of haughty kings;

Rides on a cloud disdainful by
A Sultan or a Czar,

Laughs at the worms that rise so high,
Or frowns them from afar.

He bids his awful chariot roll

Far downward from the skies,

To visit every humble soul
With pleasure in his eyes.

Why should the Lord that reigns above
Disdain so lofty kings?

Say, Lord, and why such looks of love
Upon such worthless things?

Mortals, be dumb! what creature dares

Dispute his awful will ?

Ask no account of his affairs,

But tremble and be still.

Just like his nature is his grace,
All sovereign, and all free;

Great God, how searchless are thy ways!
How deep thy judgments be!