LIFE AND MINISTRY.

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141

L. M.

His teaching.

How sweetly flowed the gospel sound

From lips of gentleness and grace,

When listening thousands gathered round,

And joy and gladness filled the place!

2 From heaven he came, of heaven he spoke,

To heaven he led his followers’ way;

Dark clouds of gloomy night he broke,

Unvailing an immortal day.

3 “Come, wanderers, to my Father’s home:

Come, all ye weary ones, and rest!”

Yes, sacred Teacher, we will come,

Obey thee, love thee, and be blest.

Bowring.

142

L. M. 6 lines.

His baptism.

In Jordan’s tide the Baptist stands,

Immersing the repenting Jews;

The Son of God the rite demands,

Nor dares the holy man refuse:

Jesus descends beneath the wave,

The emblem of his future grave!

2 Wonder, ye heavens! your Maker lies

In deeps concealed from human view;

Ye saints, behold him sink and rise;

A fit example this for you:

The sacred record, while you read,

Calls you to imitate the deed.

3 But, lo! from yonder opening skies,

What beams of dazzling glory spread!

Dove-like the Holy Spirit flies,

And lights on the Redeemer’s head:

Amazed they see the power divine

Around the Saviour’s temples shine.

4 But, hark! my soul, hark, and adore!

What sounds are those that roll along?

Not loud, like Sinai’s awful roar;

But soft and sweet as Gabriel’s song:

“This is my well-belovÉd Son,

I see well-pleased what he hath done.”

5 Thus the eternal Father spoke,

Who shakes creation with a nod,

Through parting skies the accents broke,

And bid us hear the Son of God;

O hear the awful word to-day;

Hear, all ye nations, and obey!

Rippon’s Coll.

143

L. M.

His holy life.

And is the gospel peace and love?

Such let our conversation be:

The serpent blended with the dove—

Wisdom and meek simplicity.

2 Whene’er the angry passions rise,

And tempt our thoughts or tongues to strife

On Jesus let us fix our eyes,

Bright pattern of the Christian life.

3 O how benevolent and kind!

How mild! how ready to forgive!

Be his the temper of our mind,

And his the rules by which we live.

4 To do his heavenly Father’s will

Was his employment and delight;

Humility, and love, and zeal,

Shone through his life divinely bright.

5 Dispensing good where’er he came,

The labors of his life were love—

O! if we love the Saviour’s name,

Let his divine example move.

6 But ah! how blind, how weak we are!

How frail, how apt to turn aside!

Lord, we depend upon thy care;

O may thy spirit be our guide!

7 Thy fair example may we trace,

To teach us what we ought to be;

Make us, by thy transforming grace,

Lord Jesus, daily more like thee.

Mrs. Steele.

144

L. M.

The meekness and gentleness of Christ.
2 Cor. 10:1.

How beauteous were the marks divine,

That in thy meekness used to shine;

That lit thy lonely pathway, trod

In wondrous love, O Son of God!

2 O, who like thee—so calm, so bright,

So pure, so made to live in light?

O, who like thee did ever go

So patient through a world of woe?

3 O, who like thee so humbly bore

The scorn, the scoffs of men, before?

So meek, forgiving, godlike, high,

So glorious in humility?

4 The bending angels stooped to see,

The lisping infant clasp thy knee,

And smile, as in a father’s eye,

Upon thy mild divinity.

5 And death, which sets the prisoner free,

Was pang, and scoff, and scorn to thee;

Yet love through all thy torture glowed,

And mercy with thy life-blood flowed.

6 O, in thy light be mine to go,

Illuming all my way of woe;

And give me ever on the road

To trace thy footsteps, Son of God!

A. C. Coxe.

145

L. M.

His miracles.

Behold the blind their sight receive!

Behold the dead awake and live!

The dumb speak wonders, and the lame

Leap like the hart, and bless his name!

2 Thus doth the Holy Spirit own

And seal the mission of the Son;

The Father vindicates his cause,

While he hangs bleeding on the cross.

3 He dies: the heavens in mourning stood;

He rises by the power of God:

Behold the Lord ascending high,

No more to bleed, no more to die!

4 Hence and for ever from my heart

I bid my doubts and fears depart;

And to those hands my soul resign,

Which bear credentials so divine.

Watts.

146

L. M.

His example.

My dear Redeemer and my Lord,

I read my duty in thy word;

But in thy life the law appears

Drawn out in living characters.

2 Such was thy truth, and such thy zeal,

Such deference to thy Father’s will,

Such love, and meekness so divine;

I would transcribe and make them mine.

3 Cold mountains and the midnight air

Witnessed the fervor of thy prayer;

The desert thy temptations knew,

Thy conflict and thy victory too.

4 Be thou my pattern; make me bear

More of thy gracious image here;

Then God the judge shall own my name

Among the followers of the Lamb.

Watts.

147

L. M.

He so loved the world.
John 3:16.

Not to condemn the sons of men,

Did Christ, the Son of God, appear;

No weapons in his hands are seen,

No flaming sword, nor thunder there.

2 Such was the pity of our God,

He loved the race of man so well,

He sent his Son to bear our load

Of sins, and save our souls from hell.

3 Sinners, believe the Saviour’s word;

Trust in his mighty name, and live:

A thousand joys his lips afford,

His hands a thousand blessings give.

Watts.

148

C. H. M.

His poverty.

As much have I of worldly good

As e’er my Master had;

I diet on as dainty food,

And am as richly clad;

Though plain my garb, though scant my hoard,

As Mary’s Son and nature’s Lord.

2 The manger was his infant bed,

His home the mountain cave;

He had not where to lay his head—

He borrowed e’en his grave;

Earth yielded him no resting-spot;

Her Maker, but she knew him not.

3 As much the world’s good-will I share,

Its favors and applause,

As he whose blessed name I bear,

Hated without a cause;

Despised, rejected, mocked by pride,

Betrayed, forsaken, crucified.

4 Why should I court my Master’s foe?

Why should I fear its frown?

Why should I seek for rest below?

Or sigh for brief renown?

A pilgrim to a better land,

An heir of joy at God’s right hand.

149

C. M.

He went about doing good.
Acts 10:38.

Behold, where, in a mortal form,

Appears each grace divine;

The virtues, all in Jesus met,

With mildest radiance shine.

2 To spread the rays of heavenly light,

To give the mourner joy,

To preach glad tidings to the poor,

Was his divine employ.

3 ’Midst keen reproach, and cruel scorn,

Patient and meek he stood;

His foes, ungrateful, sought his life;

He labored for their good.

4 In the last hour of deep distress,

Before his Father’s throne,

With soul resigned, he bowed, and said,

“Thy will, not mine, be done!”

5 Be Christ our pattern and our guide;

His image may we bear;

O, may we tread his holy steps,

His joy and glory share!

Enfield.

150

C. M.

The man of sorrows.

A pilgrim through this lonely world,

The blessed Saviour passed;

A mourner all his life was he,

A dying Lamb at last.

2 That tender heart which felt for all,

For us its life-blood gave;

It found on earth no resting-place,

Save only in the grave!

3 Such was our Lord: and shall we fear

The cross with all its scorn?

Or love a faithless, evil world,

That wreathed his brow with thorn?

4 No; facing all its frowns or smiles,

Like him, obedient still,

We homeward press, through storm or calm,

To Zion’s blessed hill.

Bonar.

151

C. M.

Mighty to save.

The winds were howling o’er the deep;

Each wave a watery hill;

The Saviour wakened from his sleep;

He spake, and all was still.

2 The madman in a tomb had made

His mansion of despair;

Woe to the traveler who strayed,

With heedless footsteps, there.

3 He met that glance so thrilling sweet,

He heard those accents mild;

And, melting at Messiah’s feet,

Wept like a weanÉd child.

4 O, madder than the raving man!

O, deafer than the sea!

How long the time since Christ began

To call in vain to me!

5 Yet could I hear him once again,

As I have heard of old,

Methinks he should not call in vain

His wanderer to the fold.

Heber.

152

C. P. M.

His unsearchable riches.

O could I speak the matchless worth,

O could I sound the glories forth,

Which in my Saviour shine;

I’d soar, and touch the heavenly strings,

And vie with Gabriel, while he sings

In notes almost divine.

2 I’d sing the precious blood he spilt,

My ransom from the dreadful guilt

Of sin, and wrath divine;

I’d sing his glorious righteousness,

In which all-perfect, heavenly dress,

My soul shall ever shine.

3 I’d sing the characters he bears,

And all the forms of love he wears,

Exalted on his throne;

In loftiest songs of sweetest praise,

I would to everlasting days

Make all his glories known.

4 Well, the delightful day will come,

When my dear Lord will bring me home,

And I shall see his face;

Then, with my Saviour, Brother, Friend,

A blest eternity I’ll spend,

Triumphant in his grace.

Medley.

153

11s.

A bruised reed he shall not break.
Matt. 12:20.

To the hall of that feast came the sinful and fair:

She heard in the city that Jesus was there:

Unheeding the splendor that blazed on the board,

She silently knelt at the feet of her Lord!

2 The hair on her forehead, so sad and so meek,

Hung dark on the blushes that glowed on her cheek;

And so sad and so lowly she knelt in her shame,

It seemed that her spirit had fled from her frame.

3 The frown and the murmur went round thro’ them all,

That one so unhallowed should tread in the hall;

And some said the poor would be objects more meet

For the wealth of the perfume she showered on his feet.

4 She heard but her Saviour—she spoke but in sighs,

She dared not look up to the heaven of his eyes:

And the hot tears gushed forth at each heave of her breast,

As her lips to his sandals she throbbingly pressed.

5 In the sky, after tempest, as shineth the bow,

In the glance of the sunbeam as melteth the snow,

Ho looked on the lost one—her sins were forgiven,

And Mary went forth in the beauty of heaven!

154

10s & 11s, peculiar.

Sacred tears.

Draw near, ye weary, bowed, and broken-hearted,

Ye onward travelers to a peaceful bourne;

Ye from whose path the light hath all departed;

Ye who are left in solitude to mourn;

Though o’er your spirits hath the storm-cloud swept,

Sacred are sorrow’s tears, since “Jesus wept.”

2 The bright and spotless heir of endless glory,

Wept o’er the woes of those he came to save;

And angels wondered when they heard the story

That he who conquered death wept o’er the grave;

For ’twas not when his lonely watch he kept

In dark Gethsemane, that “Jesus wept.”

3 But with the friends he loved, whose hope had perished,

The Saviour stood, while through his bosom rushed

A tide of sympathy for those he cherished,

And from his eyes the burning tear-drops gushed;

And bending o’er the tomb where Lazarus slept,

In agony of spirit, “Jesus wept.”

4 Lo! Jesus’ power the sleep of death hath broken,

And wiped the tear from sorrow’s drooping eye!

Look up, ye mourners, hear what he hath spoken:

“He that believes on me, shall never die.”

Through faith and love your spirits shall be kept;

Hope brighter grew on earth when “Jesus wept.”

Mrs. St. Leon Loud.

155

C. M. D.

He made himself of no reputation.
Phil. 2:7.

He came with his heavenly crown,

His scepter clad with power;

His coming was in feebleness,

The infant of an hour;

An humble manger cradled, first,

The Virgin’s holy birth,

And lowing herds surrounded there

The Lord of heaven and earth.

2 He came, not in his robe of wrath,

With arm outstretched to slay;

But on the darkling paths of earth,

To pour celestial day;

To guide in peace the wandering feet,

The broken heart to bind,

And bear upon the painful cross,

The sins of human kind.

3 And thou hast borne them, Saviour meek!

And therefore unto thee,

In humbleness and gratitude,

Our hearts shall offered be;

Our contrite hearts, an offering, Lord,

Which thou wilt not despise,

Our souls, our bodies, all be thine,

A living sacrifice!

Doane.

156

8s, 7s & 7s.

Jesus wept.

Jesus wept! those tears are over,

But his heart is still the same;

Kinsman, Friend, and Elder Brother,

Is his everlasting name.

Saviour, who can love like thee?

Gracious one of Bethany!

2 When the pangs of trial seize us,

When the waves of sorrow roll,

I will lay my head on Jesus—

Pillow of the troubled soul.

Truly, none can feel like thee,

Weeping one of Bethany!

3 Jesus wept, and still in glory

He can mark each mourner’s tear—

Living to retrace the story

Of the hearts he solaced here.

Lord, when I am called to die,

Let me think of Bethany!

4 Jesus wept! that tear of sorrow

Is a legacy of love;

Yesterday, to-day, to-morrow,

He the same shall ever prove.

Thou art all in all to me,

Living one of Bethany!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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