Seeing God in All.
1 If on our daily course our mind
Be set, to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
2 Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
As more of heaven in each we see;
Some softening gleam of love and prayer
Shall dawn on every cross and care.
3 O could we learn that sacrifice,
What light would all around us rise!
How would our hearts with wisdom talk
Along life's dullest, dreariest walk!
4 The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask;
Room to deny ourselves, a road
To bring us daily nearer God.
305. L. M. Doddridge.
Forms Vain Without the Spirit.
1 The uplifted eye and bended knee
Are but vain homage, Lord, to Thee:
In vain our lips Thy praise prolong,
The heart a stranger to the song.
2 Can rites, and forms, and flaming zeal,
The breaches of Thy precepts heal?
Or fasts and penance reconcile
Thy justice, and obtain Thy smile?
3 The pure, the humble, contrite mind,
Sincere, and to Thy will resigned,
To Thee a nobler offering yields
Than Sheba's groves, or Sharon's fields.
4 Love God and man,--this great command
Doth on eternal pillars stand;
This did Thine ancient prophets teach,
And this Thy well-beloved preach.
306. 8 & 7s. M. Anonymous.
Life's Work.
1 All around us, fair with flowers,
Fields of beauty sleeping lie;
All around us clarion voices
Call to duty stern and high.
2 Thankfully we will rejoice in
All the beauty God has given;
But beware it does not win us
From the work ordained of Heaven.
3 Following every voice of mercy
With a trusting, loving heart;
Let us in life's earnest labor
Still be sure to do our part.
4 Now, to-day, and not to-morrow,
Let us work with all our might,
Lest the wretched faint and perish
In the coming stormy night.
5 Now, to-day, and not to-morrow,--
Lest, before to-morrow's sun,
We too, mournfully departing,
Shall have left our work undone.
307. C. M. Anonymous.
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