HYMN II—ON HEAVEN.
Hail sacred Salem! plac'd on high,
Seat of the mighty King!
What thought can grasp thy boundless bliss,
What tongue thy glories sing?
Thy crystal tow'rs and palaces
Magnificently rise,
And dart their beaut'ous lustre round
The empyrean skies.
The voice of triumph in thy streets
And acclamations found,
Gay banquets in thy splendid courts
And purest joys abound.
Bright smiles on ev'ry face appear,
Rapture in ev'ry eye;
From ev'ry mouth glad anthems flow,
And charming harmony.
Illustrious day for ever there,
Streams from the face divine;
No pale-fac'd moon e'er glimmers forth,
Nor stars nor sun decline.
No scorching heats, no piercing colds,
The changing seasons bring;
But o'er the fields mild breezes there
Breathe an eternal spring.
The flow'rs with lasting beauty shine,
And deck the smiling ground,
While flowing streams of pleasures all
The happy plains surround.
HYMN III.—THE CREATION.
Now let the spacious world arise,
Said the creator Lord:
At once th' obedient earth and skies
Rose at his sov'reign word.
Dark was the deep, the waters lay
Confus'd, and drown'd the land;
He call'd the light, the new-born day
Attends on his command.
He bids the clouds ascend on high;
The clouds ascend, and bear
A wat'ry treasure to the sky,
And float on softer air.
The liquid element below,
Was gather'd by his hand;
The rolling seas together flow,
And leave a solid land:
With herbs and plants (a flow'ry birth)
The naked globe he crown'd,
Ere there was rain to bless the earth,
Or sun to warm the ground.
Then he adorn'd the upper skies,
Behold the sun appears,
The moon and stars in order rise,
To mark our months and years.
Out of the deep th' Almighty King
Did vital beings frame,
And painted fowls of ev'ry wing,
And fish of ev'ry name,
He gave the lion and the worm
At once their wond'rous birth;
And grazing beasts of various form
Rose from the teeming earth.
Adam was form'd of equal clay,
The sov'reign of the rest;
Design'd for nobler ends than they,
With God's own image blest.
Thus glorious in the Maker's eye,
The young Creation stood;
He saw the building from on high,
His word pronounc'd it good.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
Father of all! we bow to thee,
Who dwells in heav'n ador'd;
But present still thro' all thy works,
The universal Lord.
All hallow'd be thy sacred name,
O'er all the nations known;
Advance the kingdom of thy grace,
And let thy glory come.
A grateful homage may we yield,
With hearts resigned to thee;
And as in heav'n thy will is done,
On earth so let it be.
From day to day we humbly own
The hand that feeds us still;
Give us our bread, and we may rest
Contented in thy will.
Our sins and trespasses we own;
O may they be forgiv'n!
That mercy we to others shew,
We pray the like from Heav'n.
Our life let still thy grace direct,
From evil guard our way,
And in temptation's fatal path
Permit us not to stray.
For thine the pow'r, the kingdom thine,
All glory's due to thee:
Thine from eternity they were,
And thine shall ever be.