And if I never more see you,

Go on, I'll meet you there.

14 When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,

We've no less days to sing God's praise,
Than when we first begun.

477

TIME AND ETERNITY.

DEATH AND RESURRECTION.

God's Presence in Death.

L. M.

1 O GOD, unseen, but not unknown,
Thine eye is ever fixed on me;

I dwell beneath thy secret throne,
Encompassed by thy Deity.

2 The moment comes, when strength shall fail,
When, health and hope and courage flown,

I must go down into the vale

And shade of death with thee alone.

3 Alone with thee!-in that dread strife

Uphold me through mine agony,

And gently be this dying life

Exchanged for immortality.

4 Then, when the unbodied spirit lands Where flesh and blood have never trod, And in the unveiled presence stands,

Of thee, my Saviour and my God;5 Be mine eternal portion this,—

Since thou wert always here with me,
That I may view thy face in bliss,
And be for evermore with thee.

478

God's Presence in Death.

C. M.

1 WHEN bending o'er the brink of life
My trembling soul shall stand,
Waiting to pass death's awful flood,
Great God, at thy command;

2 0 thou great Source of joy supreme,
Whose arm alone can save,
Dispel the darkness that surrounds
The entrance to the grave.

3 Lay thy supporting, gentle hand
Beneath my sinking head,
And, with a ray of love divine,
Illume my dying bed.

479

"O Death, where is thy sting!"

1 WHAT is it for a saint to die,

That we the thought should fear?

C. M.

'Tis but to pass the heavenly sky,

And leave pollution here.

2 True, Jordan's stream is wondrous deep,
And Canaan's walls are high;

But He that guards us while we sleep,
Will guide us when we die.

3 A parting world, a gaping tomb,
Corruption, and disease,

Are thorny paths to heaven, our home,
And doors to endless bliss.

4 Eternal glory just before,

And Jesus waiting there:

A heavenly gale to waft us o'er-
What have the saints to fear?

480

"I have fought a good Fight."

L. M.

2 Tim. iv. 6-8.

1 THE hour of my departure's come,
I hear the voice that calls me home;
Now, O my God, let trouble cease,
And let thy servant die in peace.

2 The race appointed I have run,
The combat's o'er, the prize is won,
And now my witness is on high,
And now my record's in the sky.

3 Not in mine innocence I trust;
I bow before thee in the dust,
And through my Saviour's blood alone,
I look for mercy at thy throne.

4 I leave the world without a tear,
Save for the friends I hold so dear;
To heal their sorrows, Lord, descend,
And to the friendless, prove a Friend.
5 I come, I come, at thy command,
I give my spirit to thy hand:
Stretch forth thine everlasting arms,
And shield me in the last alarms.

481

"Having a Desire to Depart."

1 To Jesus, the crown of my hope, My soul is in haste to be gone; O, bear me, ye cherubim, up,

And waft me away to his throne. 2 My Saviour, whom absent I love; Whom, not having seen, I adore; Whose name is exalted above

All glory, dominion, and power;-3 Dissolve thou these bands that detain My soul from her portion in thee,

O, strike off this adamant chain,

And make me eternally free.

8s.

4 When that happy era begins,

When arrayed in thy glories I shine, Nor grieve any more, by my sins,

The bosom on which I recline,

5 Then, then shall the veil be removed,

And round me thy brightness be poured;
I shall meet him whom absent I loved,
I shall see whom unseen I adored.

6 Thus the strokes which from sin and from pain, Shall set me eternally free,

Will but strengthen and rivet the chain,
Which binds me, my Saviour, to thee.

482

"I know that I must Die." L. M. 6 lines.

1 My God, I know that I must die-
My mortal life is passing hence;
On earth I neither hope nor try
To find a lasting residence:
Then teach me by thy heavenly grace,
With joy and peace my death to face.
2 My God, I know not when I die,

What is the moment or the hour-
How soon the clay may broken lie,
How quickly pass away the flower;
Then may thy child prepared be
Through time to meet eternity.