Hadst thou, when thus, by grief dismay'd,
For death thy suff'ring servant pray'd,
Accorded his request,

He had not liv'd thy name to praise,
And own his life's concluding days
Its brightest, and its best.

O then instruct us, even now,
When we before thy footstool bow,

And seek through prayer thy face,

That all our supplications, still,
Should own submission to thy will,
Be prompted by thy grace.

That chiefly in affliction's hour

Our hearts may own that precept's power

Taught by thy blessed Son,

Who in his agony could pray,

The cup might pass from him-yet say,

Father! Thy will be done!

THE VANITY OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE.

.

"For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow."-Job, viii. 9.

His birth of yesterday,

To-morrow pass'd away ;

His life the shadow of a summer cloud;

Shall mortal man be vain

Of knowledge he may gain

In the brief span of time to earth allow'd?

Not that we under-rate

Or lightly estimate

The triumphs won by many an honour'd name
Of those whose midnight oil,

And unremitting toil,

In outward lore have won them worldly fame.

Yet, oh! how poor, and brief,

Like the frail Cistus' leaf

Must knowledge be-confin'd to things of time;
Which, fetter'd by their thrall,

Is ignorant of all

That renders an eternity sublime.

What boots it to be vers'd

In systems schools have nurs'd,-
If, gaining all the lore that these impart,
That truth remain unknown,

Whose teaching power, alone,
Convicts, converts, and sanctifies the heart?

GOD UNSEARCHABLE.

"Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection?"-Job, xi. 7.

WE see, O Lord! from day to day,

In every work of thine,

That goodness, power, and skill, which say,

Thou ART! and art DIVINE!

We feel this truth, from hour to hour,

When deep within the heart

Thy Spirit, with resistless power,

And love-declares Thou art.3

More would we know-Thyself alone
Canst banish every doubt;

Vain all researches of our own

Must be to find thee out.

Oh! teach us, then, thine outward word

To study more and more,

And be its oracles preferr'd
To perishable lore.

Instruct us to thy inward voice
To lend a wakeful ear :

In its approval to rejoice,

At each rebuke to fear.

Thy word our law; thy voice our guide ; Thy truth our only stay,

Show us a Saviour crucified,

To Thee, the Light, the Way.

Thus be that saving knowledge won

Which only their's can be,

Who, through the Spirit, and the Son, Are brought, O God! to thee.

CONFIDING FAITH.

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."-Job, xiii. 15.

BE such, in trial's darkest hour,
Our trust and confidence in God;
Be such our faith's sustaining power,
Our meek submission to His rod :
Then, though our outward life be slain,
One far more glorious we shall gain.

There is a life we must forego,

If we would shun death's keenest sting;
A death there is we here must know,
If we to endless life would cling:
O Lord! that hidden life supply,
And teach us daily how to die.

Who seeks to save his outward life,

Shall lose the life which Christ would give; Who dies for Him-shall by that strife

With Him o'er death triumphant live!

O for this heavenly life within!
This daily death to self--and sin!