3 How strong these words from heaven to cheer, To kindle love, to banish fear,
And all things high and pure endear!
Our God is love!
4 O Father, when the night is nigh,
That veils for ever earth and sky,
Be this the heart's last melody,
Our God is love!
5 Then, when the brief low strain is o'er,
This truth divine shall with us soar,
And make sweet music evermore,
Our God is love!
148 He is faithful that promised.—Heb. x. 23.
I EGIN, my tongue, some heavenly theme,
And speak some boundless thing;
The mighty works, or mightier name
Of our eternal King.
2 Tell of His wondrous faithfulness,
And sound His power abroad;
Sing the sweet promise of His grace,
And the performing God.
3 Proclaim salvation from the Lord,
For wretched, dying men ;
His hand has writ the sacred word
With an immortal pen.
4 Engraved as in eternal brass
The mighty promise shines;
Nor can the powers of darkness rase
Those everlasting lines.
5 His very word of grace is strong
As that which built the skies;
The voice that rolls the stars along
Speaks all the promises.
149 Great is Thy faithfulness.—Lam. iii. 23.
RAISE, everlasting praise be paid
To Him that earth's foundation laid;
Praise to the God whose strong decrees
Sway the wide realms of earth and seas.
2 Praise to the goodness of the Lord,
Who rules His people by His word,
And there, as strong as His decrees,
He sets His kindest promises.
3 Each promise is the voice of God,
Who spoke, and spread the skies abroad;
Each promise powerful as that sound
That bid the new-made world go round.
4 O for a strong, a lasting faith,
To credit what the Almighty saith;
To embrace the message of His Son,
And call the joys of heaven our own :
5 Then, should the earth's old pillars shake,
And all the wheels of nature break,
Our steady souls should fear no more
Than solid rocks when billows roar.
6 Our everlasting hopes arise
Above the ruinable skies,—
Where the Eternal Builder reigns,
And His own courts His power maintains.
150 Their line is gone out through all the earth.
HERE is a book who runs may read,
Which heavenly truth imparts;
And all the lore its scholars need,
Pure eyes and Christian hearts.
2 The works of God above, below,
Within us, and around,
Are pages in that book, to show
How God Himself is found.
3 The glorious sky, embracing all,
Is like the Maker's love,
Wherewith encompassed, great and small
In peace and order move.
4 One name, above all glorious names,
With its ten thousand tongues,
The everlasting sea proclaims,
Echoing angelic songs.
5 The raging fire, the roaring wind,
Thy boundless power display;
But in the gentler breeze we find
Thy spirit's viewless way.
6 Thou, who hast given me eyes to see
And love this sight so fair,
Give me a heart to find out Thee,
And read Thee everywhere.
151 He that built all things is God.—Heb. iii. 4
SING the almighty power of God
That made the mountains rise;
That spread the flowing seas abroad,
And built the lofty skies.
2 I sing the wisdom that ordained
The sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at His command,
And all the stars obey.
3 I sing the goodness of the Lord,
That filled the earth with food;
He formed the creatures by His word,
And then pronounced them good.
4 Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed
Where'er I turn mine eye!
If I survey the ground I tread,
Or gaze upon the sky.
5 There's not a plant or flower below,
But makes Thy glories known ;
And clouds arise and tempests blow
By order from Thy throne.
6 His hand is my perpetual guard,
He guides me with His eye;
Why should I then forget the Lord,
Who is for ever nigh?
HE earth and all her fulness owns
Jehovah for her Sovereign Lord;
The countless myriads of her sons
Rose into being at His word.
2 His word did out of nothing call
The world, and founded all that is;
Launched on the floods this solid ball,
And fixed it in the floating seas.
3 But who shall quit this low abode,
Who shall ascend the heavenly place,
And stand upon the mount of God,
And see his Maker face to face?
4 The man whose hands and heart are clean
That blessed portion shall receive;
Whoe'er by grace is saved from sin,
Hereafter shall in glory live.
5 He shall obtain the starry crown,
And, numbered with the saints above,
The God of his salvation own,
The God of his salvation love.
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim.
The unwearied sun, from day to day,
Doth his Creator's power display,
And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty hand.
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