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6 Thou dost the seed prepare,

And make it spring when sown; And if a hundred-fold it bear,

345

The praise is all thine own.

For a Teachers' Meeting.

1 GOD of union, God of love, With thy sanctifying power, From the realms of light above,

Bless us in this solemn hour.

2 Holy Ghost, descend and bring

Heavenly peace and godly fear; And beneath thy guardian wing,

Shelter all before thee here.

3 Bless our tender charge; impart
What shall most to thee incline;
O, reclaim each wandering heart,
Seal them! Seal them ever thine.
4 Bless their teachers, grant to each
All our great employments need;
Show us rightly how to teach
Not by word alone, but deed.

5 Make us faithful to the end,
While our duties we fulfil;

And the promised blessing send,
Like the dew on Hermon's hill.

7s.

346

TIMES AND OCCASIONS.

For a New Year or Birth-Day.

1 LORD of my life, whose word of power
Did first inspire my breath,

Thy hand has kept me to this hour,
From danger and from death.

2 Spared to commence another year,
The past I now review:

How numerous do my sins appear,
How great thy mercies, too.

3 I thank thee for thy tender care
Through all my earlier days,
And for each privilege I share,
That still thy love displays.

4 For Jesus' sake, my sins forgive,
And strengthen me in grace;
That to thy glory I may live,
And run the Christian race.

5 How long or short my course may be,
'Tis not for me to know;

But may I yield my heart to thee,

And in thy favour grow.

C. M.

347

The New Year.

8s & 7s.

1 HOLY Father, thou hast taught us
We should live to thee alone;

Year by year, thy hand hath brought us
On through dangers oft unknown.
When we wandered, thou hast found us;
When we doubted, sent us light;

Still thine arm has been around us,
All our paths were in thy sight.

2 In the world will foes assail us,

Craftier, stronger far than we;
And the strife shall never fail us,
Well we know, before we die.
Therefore, Lord, we come, believing
Thou can'st give the power we need;
Through the prayer of faith receiving
Strength, the Spirit's strength, indeed.

3 We would trust in thy protecting,
Wholly rest upon thine arm;
Follow wholly thy directing,
Thou, our only guard from harm!
Keep us from our own undoing,
Help us turn to thee when tried,
Still our footsteps, Father, viewing,
Keep us ever at thy side.

348

Opening or Close of the Year.

1 As o'er the past my memory strays,
Why heaves the secret sigh?

'Tis that I mourn departed days,
Still unprepared to die.

#2 The world and worldly things beloved,
My anxious thoughts employed:
And time unhallowed, unimproved,
Presents a fearful void.

C. M.

3 Yet, Holy Father, wild despair
Chase from my labouring breast;
Thy grace it is which prompts the prayer,
That grace can do the rest.

4 My life's brief remnant all be thine;
And when thy sure decree
Bids me this fleeting breath resign,
O speed my soul to thee.

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1 BLESS, O Lord, each opening year
To the souls assembling here:
Clothe thy word with power divine,
Make us willing to be thine.

2 Where thou hast thy work begun,
Give new strength the race to run;

7s.

Scatter darkness, doubts, and fears,
Wipe away the mourners' tears.

3 Bless us all, both old and young: Call forth praise from every tongue: Let our whole assembly prove

All thy power and all thy love.

350

Praise for Annual Mercies.

1 OUR Helper, God, we bless thy name,
The same thy power, thy grace the same;
The tokens of thy loving care

Open and crown and close the year.

2 Amid ten thousand snares we stand,
Supported by thy guardian hand;
And see, when we survey our ways,
Ten thousand monuments of praise.

3 Thus far thine arm hath led us on;

Thus far we make thy mercy known;
And, while we tread this desert land,
New mercies shall new songs demand.

4 Our grateful souls on Jordan's shore
Shall raise one sacred pillar more;
Then bear, in thy bright courts above,
Inscriptions of immortal love.

L. M.

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