5 And if no evening visit's paid
Between my Saviour and my soul,
How dull the night! how sad the shade!
How mournfully the minutes roll!
6 This flesh of mine might learn as soon
To live, yet part with all my blood;
To breathe when vital air is gone,
Or thrive and grow without my food.
7 [Christ is my light, my life, my care,
My blessed hope, my heavenly prize,
Dearer than all my passions are,
My limbs, my bowels, or my eyes.
8 The strings that twine about my heart,
Tortures and racks may tear them off,
But they can never, never part
With their dear hold of Christ my love.]
9 [My God! and can an humble child
That loves thee with a flame so high,
Be ever from thy face exil'd
Without the pity of thine eye?
10 Impossible—For thine own hands
Have tied my heart so fast to thee;
And in thy book the promise stands,
That where thou art thy friends must be.
Hymn 2:101.
The world's three great temptations.
1 When in the light of faith divine
We look on things below,
Honour, and gold, and sensual joy,
How vain and dangerous too!
2 [Honour's a puff of noisy breath;
Yet men expose their blood,
And venture everlasting death
To gain that airy good.
3 Whilst others starve the nobler mind,
And feed on shining dust,
They rob the serpent of his food
T' indulge a sordid lust.]