REDEMPTION, GRACE, AND PARDON.

327.

C. M.

*WATTS.

Surpassing Glories of Redemption.

1 FATHER, how wide thy glory shines! How high thy wonders rise!

Known through the earth by thousand signs,
By thousands through the skies.

2 Those mighty orbs proclaim thy power;
Their motions speak thy skill;
And on the wings of every hour
We read thy patience still.

3 Part of thy name divinely stands
On all thy creatures writ;
They show the labor of thy hands,
The impress of thy feet.

4 But when we view thy grand design
To save rebellious worms,

Where wisdom, power, and goodness shine In their most glorious forms,

5 Our thoughts are lost in reverend awe;
We love and we adore;

The holy angels never saw
So much of God before.

60 may

I bear some humble part
In that immortal song;

Wonder and joy shall tune my heart,
And love command my tongue.

328,

C. M.

WATTS.

Grace abounding over Sin.

1 WHY does your face, ye humble souls, Those mournful colors wear?

What doubts are these that waste your faith. And nourish your despair?

2 What though your numerous sins exceed
The stars that fill the skies,

And, aiming at the eternal throne,
Like pointed mountains rise?

3 What though your mighty guilt beyond
The wide creation swell,

And hath its cursed foundations laid

Low as the deeps of hell?

4 See, here an endless ocean flows
Of never-failing grace!
Behold, a dying Savior's veins
The sacred flood increase!

5 It rises high, and drowns the hills,
Has neither shore nor bound:
Now, if we search to find our sins,
Our sins can ne'er be found.

6 Awake, our hearts, adore the
That buries all our faults,

grace

And pardoning blood, that swells above
Our follies and our thoughts.

329.

S. M.

DODDRIDGE.

Grace first and last in Salvation.

1 GRACE! 'tis a charming sound!
Harmonious to the ear!

Heaven with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.

2 Grace first contrived the way
To save rebellious man;
And all the steps that grace display
Which drew the wondrous plan.

3 Grace first inscribed my name
In God's eternal book;
'Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,
Who all my sorrows took.

4 Grace led my roving feet
To tread the heavenly road;
And new supplies each hour I meet,
While pressing on to God.

5 Grace taught my soul to pray,
And made my eyes o'erflow;
'Twas grace that kept me to this day,
And will not let me go.

6 Grace all the work shall crown,
Through everlasting days;

It lays in heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise.

330.

C. M.

ANONYMOUS.

Pardon through Christ. Ps. 130.

1 GREAT God, wert thou extreme to mark The deeds we do amiss,

Before thy presence who could stand,
Who claim thy promised bliss?
But, O! all merciful and just,
Thy love surpasseth thought;
A gracious Savior has appeared,
And peace and pardon brought.

2 Thy servants in the temple watched
The dawning of the day,
Impatient with its earliest beams
Their holy vows to pay;
And chosen saints far off beheld
That great and glorious morn,
When the glad day-spring from on high
Auspiciously should dawn.

3 On us the Sun of Righteousness
Its brightest beams hath poured;
With grateful hearts and holy zeal,
Lord, be thy love adored;
And let us look with joyful hope
To that more glorious day,

Before whose brightness sin and death.
And grief shall flee away.

331.

C. M.

ANONYMOUS.

Pardon on Repentance.

1 WHEN sinners quit their wicked ways, Their evil thoughts forego,

The God to whom their steps return
Returning grace will show.

2 He pardons with o'erflowing love;
For, hear the voice divine :—
'My nature is not like to yours,
Nor like your ways are mine.

3 But far as heaven's resplendent orbs
Beyond this earth extend;

So far my thoughts, so far my ways
Your thoughts and ways transcend.

4 'Like as the showers from heaven distil, Nor thither rise again,

But swell the earth with fruitful juice,
And all its tribes sustain ;

5'So not a word that flows from me
Shall ineffectual fall;
But universal nature prove
Obedient to my call.

6 'Where briers grew in barren wilds,
Shall firs and myrtles spring;

And nature, through her utmost bounds, Eternal praises sing.'