LONGING FOR GOD. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, The store of joys God has prepared For those who love him well. Oh, may those joys one day be ours, And yet those joys are not enough, The world's unkindness grows with life, 'T were lawful then to wish to die, Yes! peace is something more than joy, Even the joys above; For peace, of all created things, Is likest him we love. 397 FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER. Ο Whosoever. NE word, dear Lord, where all are dear, "No soul shall ever be cast out That cometh unto thee." Lost in my sin and self-despair, That, full of longing for thy grace, My heart can ne'er forget to chide But thou art greater than my heart, If thou hadst left a single soul So great are mine iniquities, But in this "all" is room for me, No other door were wide enough, Through this I enter in. Trembling in weakness, through my trust I fall before thy feet; That all my help may come from thee, Forgetting all my sin and woe, And learn the mystery of thy grace, DROP, DROP, SLOW TEARS. If simple coming brings such bliss Closed in the shelter of thine arms The night was dark and wild with storm, O morn of grace, O day of love, Where, through the eternal years of God Transfigured more and more, Thy perfect glory we shall see, And change as we adore. 399 JOSEPH ALLEN ELY. Drop, drop, Slow Tears. DROP, drop, slow tears, and bathe those beauteous feet, Which brought from heaven the news and Prince of Cease not, wet eyes, his mercy to entreat! To cry for vengeance sin doth never cease. In your deep floods drown all my faults and fears; Nor let his eye see sin but through my tears. GILES FLETCHER. Source of my Life. OURCE of my life's refreshing springs, Thy love appoints me pleasant things, They might be glad, but not in thee. In all their lot their Father's pleasure, It binds us to our strength in thee. ANNA LÆTITIA WARING. IF Repentance. F the Lord were to send down blessings from heaven as thick and as fast as the fall Of the drops of rain or the flakes of snow, I'd love him and thank him for all; But the gift that I 'd crave, and the gift that I'd keep, if I'd only one to choose, Is the gift of a broken and contrite heart,—and that he will not refuse. REPENTANCE. 401 For what is my wish and what is my hope, when I've toiled and prayed and striven, All the days that I live upon earth? It is this- to be for given. And what is my wish and what is my hope, but to end where I begin, With an eye that looks to my Saviour, and a heart that mourns for its sin! Well, perhaps you think I'm going to say I'm the chief of sinners; and then You'll tell me, as far as you can see, I 'm no worse than other men. I've little to do with better or worse- I have n't to judge the rest; If other men are no better than I, they are bad enough at the best. I've nothing to do with other folks; it is n't for me to say What sort of men the Scribes might be, or the Pharisees in their day; But we know that it was n't for such as they that the kingdom of heaven was meant; And we 're told we shall likewise perish unless we do repent. And what have I done, perhaps you'll say, that I should fret and grieve? I did n't wrangle, nor curse, nor swear; I did n't lie nor thieve; I'm clear of cheating and drinking and debt. — Well, perhaps, but I cannot say ; For some of these I had n't a mind, and some did n't come in my way. For there's many a thing I could wish undone, though the law might not be broken; And there's many a word, now I come to think, that I could wish unspoken. |