66 THOU COMPASSEST ME ON EVERY SIDE."

GOD unseen, but not unknown,
Thine eye is ever fix'd on me;

I dwell beneath Thy secret throne,
Encompass'd by Thy Deity.

Throughout this universe of space
To nothing am I long allied;
For flight of time, and change of place,
My strongest, dearest bonds divide.

Parents I had, but where are they?

Friends whom I knew, I know no more; Companions once that cheer'd my way Have dropt behind or gone before.

Now I am one amidst the crowd

Of life and action hurrying round;

Now left alone,-for, like a cloud

They came, they went, and are not found.

Even from myself sometimes I part:
Unconscious sleep is nightly death;

Yet surely by my couch Thou art,

To prompt my pulse, inspire my breath.

Of all that I have done or said,

How little can I now recall!

Forgotten things to me are dead;

With Thee they live, Thou know'st them all.

Thou hast been with me from the womb,

Witness to ev'ry conflict here;

Nor wilt Thou leave me at the tomb,
Before Thy bar I must appear.

The moment comes, when strength must fail,
When, health, and hope, and courage flown,
I must go down into the vale

And shade of death, with Thee alone.

Alone with Thee!-in that dread strife,
Uphold me through mine agony,
And gently be this dying life
Exchanged for immortality.

Then when the unbodied spirit lands
Where flesh and blood have never trod,

And in the unveil'd presence stands
Of Thee, my Saviour, and my God;

Be mine eternal portion this,

Since Thou wert always here with me, That I may view Thy face in bliss,

And be for evermore with Thee.

Montgomery.

66 THERE REMAINETH A REST."

H! where shall rest be found,
Rest for the weary soul?

'Twere vain the ocean-depths to sound,

Or pierce to either pole:

The world can never give

The bliss for which we sigh;

'Tis not the whole of life to live, Nor all of death to die.

Beyond this vale of tears
There is a life above,
Unmeasured by the flight of years;
And all that life is love:-
There is a death, whose pang
Outlasts the fleeting breath;
Oh what eternal horrors hang
Around "the second death!"

Lord God of truth and grace, Teach us that death to shun; Lest we be banish'd from Thy face, And evermore undone :

Here would we end our quest;

Alone are found in Thee,

The life of perfect love,-the rest

Of immortality.

Montgomery.

86 AND HE WAS NOT: FOR GOD TOOK HIM."

"ERVANT of God, well done! Rest from thy loved employ;

The battle fought, the victory won,

Enter thy Master's joy."

The voice at midnight came,

He started up to hear;

A mortal arrow pierced his frame,

He fell, but felt no fear.

Tranquil amidst alarms,

It found him on the field;
A veteran slumbering on his arms,
Beneath his red-cross shield.

His sword was in his hand,

Still warm with recent fight,
Ready that moment, at command,
Through rock and steel to smite.

It was a two-edged blade,

Of heavenly temper, keen;

And double were the wounds it made,
Where'er it glanced between :

'Twas death to sin,-'twas life
To all who mourn'd for sin;
It kindled, and it silenced, strife,
Made war, and peace, within.

Oft with its fiery force

His arm had quell'd the foe, And laid, resistless in his course, The alien armies low.

Bent on such glorious toils,
The world to him was loss;
Yet all his trophies, all his spoils,
He hung upon the Cross.

At midnight came the cry,
"To meet thy God prepare!"

He woke,—and caught his Captain's eye;
Then, strong in faith and prayer,

His spirit, with a bound,

Left its encumbering clay;

His tent, at sun-rise, on the ground,

A darken'd ruin lay.