321 The Solid Rock. L.M.
The Sure Foundation.
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
CHO.--On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
2 When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the vail.
3 His oath, his covenant, his blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
4 When he shall come with trumpet sound.
O, may I then in him be found;
Dressed in his righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
Rev. Edward Mote, 1825.
322 How Can I but Love Him? 6s & 5s.
The Exceeding Love of Christ.
So tender, so precious.
My Savior to me;
So true, and so gracious,
I've found him to be.
REF.--How can I but love him?
But love him, but love him?
There's no friend above him,
Poor sinner, for thee.
2 So patient, so kindly
Toward all of my ways;
I blunder so blindly,
He love still repays.
3 Of all friends the fairest
And truest is he;
His love is the rarest,
That ever can be.
4 His beauty, tho' bleeding
And circled with thorns,
Is then most exceeding;
For grief him adorns.
J.E. Rankin, D.D.
323 My Beloved, 11s & 8s.
My Beloved.
O thou, in whose presence my soul takes delight,
On whom in affliction I call;
My comfort by day, and my song in the night,
My hope, my salvation, my all.
2 Where dost thou at noon-tide resort with thy sheep,
To feed in the pastures of love?
And why in the valley of death should I weep,
Or alone in the wilderness rove?
3 O, why should I wander an alien from thee,
Or cry in the desert for bread?
Thy foes will rejoice when my sorrows they see,
And smile at the tears I have shed.
4 He looks, and ten thousands of angels rejoice,
And myriads wait for his word;
He speaks, and eternity, fill'd with his voice,
Re-echoes the praise of the Lord.
Jos. Swain, 1792.