3 We call to mind those happier days,
When praise was our employ;
But now we weep, in silent lays-
Yet tears, too, have their joy.

4 Rememb'ring, Lord, how once we felt,
When first from guilt set free,
We ask thy love, our hearts to melt,
And draw us back to thee.

5 Let sorrows yield to thine embrace;
Let guilt and darkness fly;
Then tuneful harps shall sound thy praise,
In strains of rapt'rous joy.

441. L. M.

The same. Psalm cxxxvii. 1-4.

WHERE Babel's streams ran murmuring by,

We hung our useless harps on high;

Our flowing tears increas'd the flood,
For we had wander'd from our God.
5 While thus our harps in silence hung,
We heard from many an impious tongue,
Wake to the lays, ye Jews, and sing,
The praise of Zion's sovereign King.
3 When impious men grow strangely bold,
When love declines, and zeal grows cold,
And harps are stript of every string,
Is it a time for saints to sing?

4 When darkness shrouds my trembling mind,
And all my joys seem left behind,

And doubts and fears around me cling,
Is it a time for me to sing?

2 O Lord, arise! assert thy right,

And put our threatening foes to flight;
Tear from our hearts each idol fair,
And reign without a rival there.

6 Awake, our harps, in tuneful lays,
Sound to the dear Redeemer's praise;
He comes our miseries to redress,

From heaven he comes, his saints to bless.

442. C. M. Steele.

Watchfulness and Prayer. Matt. xxvi. 41. ALAS! what hourly dangers rise!

What snares beset my way!

To heaven, O let me lift my eyes,
And hourly watch and pray.

2 How oft my mournful thoughts complain,
And melt in flowing tears!
My weak resistance, ah! how vain!
How strong my foes and fears!

3 O gracious God, in whom I live,
My feeble efforts aid;

Help me to watch, and pray, and strive,
Though trembling and afraid.

4 Increase my faith, increase my hope,
As foes and fears prevail;
And bear my fainting spirit up,
Or soon my strength will fail.

5 O keep me in thy heavenly way,
And bid the tempter flee;
And let me never, never stray,
From holiness and thee.

443. L. M. Beddome.

Inconstancy acknowledged.

THE wandering star, and fleeting wind,
Both represent the unstable mind;

The morning cloud, and early dew,
Bring our inconstancy to view.

2 But cloud, and wind, and dew, and star,
Faint and imperfect emblems are;
Nor can there aught in nature be
So fickle, and so false, as we.

3 Our outward walk, and inward frame,
Scarce through a single hour the same;
We vow, and straight our vows forget,
And, then, these very vows repeat.

4 We sin forsake, to sin return;

Are hot, are cold, rejoice, and mourn;
In deep distress, then raptures feel,
Now on the mount, now in the vale.

5 With flowing tears, Lord, we confess
Our folly, and unsteadfastness;

When shall these hearts more fixed be,
Fixt by thy grace, and fixt for thee?

444. L. M. Steele.

Complaining at the throne of grace. O'ERWHELM'D with restless griefs and fears,

Lord, I approach thy mercy-seat,

With aching heart, and flowing tears,
To pour my sorrows at thy feet.

2 Thy promises are large and free,
To humble souls who seek thy face;
O where, for refuge, can I flee,
My God! but to the throne of grace?
3 Thou seest the tempest of my soul,
These restless waves of fear and sin;
Thy voice can all the rage control,
And make a sacred calm within.

4 My thoughts recall thy favours past,
In many a dark distressing hour,
The kind support my heart confess'd,
And own'd thy wisdom, love, and power.
5 And still these bright perfections shine,
Eternal their unclouded rays;
Unchanging faithfulness is thine,
And just, and right, are all thy ways.
6 Let thy enliv'ning, healing voice,
The kind assurance of thy love,
Relieve my heart, revive my joys,
And all my sins and fears remove.

WH

Sin and Holiness. Rom. vii. 23. Gal. v. 17. HAT jarring natures dwell within! Abounding grace, remaining sin! Nor this can reign, nor that prevail, Though each by turns my heart assail. 2 Now I complain, and groan and die; Now raise my songs of triumph high; Sing a rebellious passion slain, Or mourn to feel it live again. 3 One happy hour beholds me rise, Borne upwards to my native skies, While faith assists my soaring flight, To realms of joy, and worlds of light.

4 Scarce a few hours or minutes roll,
Ere earth reclaims my captive soul;
I feel its sympathetic force,

And headlong urge my downward course.
5 Great God! assist me through the fight,
Make me triumphant in thy might;
Thou the desponding heart canst raise,-
The victory mine, and thine the praise.

446. C. M.

Longing for Communion with Christ.
WHEN Jesus smil'd, and said, arise!

Thy sins are all forgiven;

My bosom bloom'd a Paradise,
An antepast of heaven.

2 And though I wept o'er follies past,
My grateful bosom glow'd;
Believing I should meet at last,
The Saviour whom I lov'd.

3 O lovely days of joy and grief,
Ah! whither are ye fled?
Sweet Jesus, come to my relief,
Lift up my drooping head!

4 Come, and restore my bleeding heart,
To love and joy again;
With sin and earth I freely part,
Communion to regain.

5 Communion with my Saviour God-
To know my sins forgiven,
Is more than paradise restor'd;
"Tis all the bliss of Heaven.

447. C. M.

Declension in pious feeling, lamented.

WHERE are the grateful tears I shed,

Of joy and pious grief;

The hope that beam'd upon my head,
The faith that gave relief?

2 Where is the zeal with which I mov'd
Obedient to thy law?

Wretch that I am, to grieve my Love,
And cause him to withdraw!

3 Saviour, I own my sin with shame,
Do thou my sin forgive!

Speak, and my heart with love shall flame. My dying hope shall live.

4 Speak thy forgiveness to my soul,

And faith and zeal shall burn;

Thy word shall make the wounded whol The wanderer to return.

448. L. M. Wesley's Coll. Prayer for holy Zeal. FOR zeal I sigh, for zeal I pant, Yet heavy is my soul, and faint; I groan, I strive, I watch and pray, But ah! how soon it dies away.

2 0 Thou, who all things canst control, Chase this dead slumber from my soul, Touch my cold breast with heavenly fire, With holy, conquering zeal inspire.