Hymns and Sacred Lyrics In Three Parts. By Joseph Cottle |
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| [THE COMMANDMENTS.] |
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 | Hymns and Sacred Lyrics |  |
[THE COMMANDMENTS.]
463. First Commandment. “Thou shalt have none other Gods but me.”
1
Multiplied are human idols!Satan's temples spread around!
But before no form, or creature,
Must our voice, imploring, sound;
We must worship
God alone, the great profound!
2
On his will, we hang for being;Through his power, each breath we draw;
All that is would instant vanish
Should he his support withdraw!
On Jehovah,
We must think with solemn awe!
3
He, the everlasting mountains,With a word, from nothing brought!
He, the countless stars of heaven,
In the silence of his thought!
Reverential!
May we fear him as we ought!
4
He, our souls, at first created;Clouds that float, and suns that glow!
365
He, the beauteous flowers that blow!
Wood and fountain,
Things above, and things below!
5
May we yield him adoration,When we rise, and ere we sleep!
May we, in our inmost spirits,
His commands delight to keep!
Soon, in glory,
The rewards of grace to reap!
464. Second Commandment. “Thou shalt not make to thyself any Graven Image,” &c.
1
To nothing in the heavens above us,Nothing on the earth beneath,
Must we, of our God forgetful,
Prayer, in faintest whisper, breathe,
Or, Jehovah
Will his glittering sword unsheath!
2
Prone we are to seek a refugeIn the forms that fade and rust;
Prone we are, with hearts deceitful,
In an arm of flesh to trust;
Not confiding
In th' Omnipotent and Just!
3
No work of man, no graven image,Hallow'd in our sight must be!
Things of heaven, and earth, and water,
At Jehovah's presence flee!
To the Highest
We alone must bend the knee!
4
We, ere this, have bow'd to creatures,Though no image, wood or stone;
366
Upon idols of our own!
From this moment
May we worship God alone!
5
Near may be commission'd angels,To conduct our souls away!
Let us, on our high probation,
Keep in view that solemn day!
And, each idol
In our hearts, relentless, slay!
465. Third Commandment. “Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain,” &c.
1
Him, who rides upon heaven's circle,Whirlwinds his mysterious car;
Him, whose utterance is the thunder,
And whose arrows lightnings are;
Him, we worship,
Witness'd in his works afar!
2
Sun, and moon, and stars, unnumber'd,The eternal God proclaim!
He sustains the wheels of nature,
Through her universal frame!
Ever tremble
At Jehovah's awful name!
3
Fast the moment is advancing,When we all shall stand and hear,
Rich and poor, the final sentence!
Then the stoutest heart will fear!
And the righteous
With arch-angels bright appear!
367
4
Is it an inferior blessingTo behold in God a friend?
Him, whose frown throws night before it!
And whose smiles the sun transcend!
On whose favour
We for every breath depend?
5
Daring mortal! learn to trembleAt the name of God, Most High!
Lest he in his anger smite thee,
And thy soul and body die!
Ever banish'd
From the mansions in the sky!
466. Fourth Commandment. “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy,” &c.
1
God, in mercy to his creaturesHath a day of rest bestow'd!
Life, to some new state of being,
Is the rough and thorny road!
We are hastening
To a strange and last abode!
2
Many cares, and painful duties,Through our week-day hours prevail;
With eternity before us,
Let us bid the sabbath, hail!
Sacred moments!
Time is short! and life is frail!
3
All our days are fix'd and number'd,And for weighty ends were given!
May we evermore remember
To keep holy one in seven!
Fly from evil,
And prepare for death and heaven!
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4
While, by unseen foes surrounded,We deceitful hearts possess,
On this day, by God appointed,
May we all our sins confess,
And the Saviour,
Make our strength, and righteousness.
5
May we join our feeble praisesIn th' assembly God hath bless'd;
And begin delightful foretastes
Of the joys in heaven possest.
Blissful region!
Sabbath of eternal rest!
467. Fifth Commandment. “Honour thy Father and thy Mother,” &c.
1
If gratitude, the debt of justice,Be due to those who favours show;
What shall we render to our parents,
To whom ten thousand gifts we owe!
Children themselves,
The full amount can never know.
2
Do we desire to please our Maker,And hope on earth to sojourn long?
God hath commanded us to honour
Our parents, with affection strong,
Next after God,
To whom our highest thanks belong.
3
If children dread self-accusation,When, 'neath the turf, their parents lie;
Let them, while yet they may, unceasing,
In duty and affection vie!
Or death may soon
Provision for remorse supply!
369
4
And, Oh! let parents love their children,Their body much, but more their soul;
Let them, as well becomes immortals,
Foster the good, the bad control,
And, names so dear,
Strive in heaven's record to enrol!
5
Let them a deeper feeling cherishTo fit them for an endless state,
Than to exalt, with anxious purpose,
Their rank amid the rich and great!
Oft, slippery paths,
Seen, in true colours, when too late!
6
Then, when this shadowy world is over,They all shall meet to part no more,
Safe in those realms, where weary pilgrims,
(Those passing now, or gone before,)
Shall, victory! shout,
And, with the ransom'd, God adore.
468. Sixth Commandment. “Thou shalt do no murder.”
1
Is it required to give the mandateAt which demoniacs might turn pale!
To charge a mortal, “Do no murder!”
Oh, fallen nature! worse than frail!
How might we sink
Should our internal foes prevail!
2
One murderer, on the verge of Eden,With brother's blood the green sward stain'd!
The lifted hand! the tie fraternal!
The pleading voice, his heart disdain'd!
Dread penalty!
Jehovah's vengeance Cain sustained.
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3
There oft exists the murderous spirit,Where never purple tide doth flow!
Revengeful thought, the imprecation,
The wish that harm our foes might know,
These ever spring
From the distemper'd world below!
4
Father! with passions so disorder'd,With wrath so prone to rise within,
Bestow thine influence, to restrain us,
Lest anger turn to deadly sin!
To curb our hearts,
Let us this hour, by prayer, begin.
5
May we display, to all around us,The gentle spirit, good, and kind!
The soul that can return, spontaneous,
The soothing word, for words unkind:
Grant us thy strength
To discipline, for heaven, our mind!
469. Seventh Commandment. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
1
In gifts of mercy without number,The treasury of heaven abounds:
The proof of watchful care paternal,
Wheree'er we fix our gaze, surrounds:
One blessing chief
With gladness man's condition crowns.
2
The God who guides and governs all things,Views marriage with th' approving eye;
The beings who would burst asunder
Its hallow'd and endearing tie,
Must never look
For portion with the saints on high.
371
3
Th' Almighty, for such dark delinquents,In anger, hath prepared a state:
His curse, more terrible than lightning,
Will follow, with o'erwhelming fate,
Adulterers vile,
And, on them, close hell's flaming gate!
4
For that eternal world before us,We must our wayward hearts prepare,
Remembering, as a solemn warning,
None but the pure shall enter there;
Repentant souls
Who all the wedding garment wear.
5
Save us, O Lord, from each temptation!Give us desires that tend to thee!
And wash us in that blessed fountain,
Prepared for sin on Calvary!
Which, through heaven's grace,
From every taint the soul can free.
470. Eighth Commandment. “Thou shalt not steal.”
1
Are there some shapes, resembling human,(Compounded of inferior dust!)
So heedless of their Maker's anger,
As to perform the deed unjust?
To wrong! to steal!
Whom foes despise, and friends distrust!
2
A sight so abject claims our pity;Immortal Beings, sunk so low!
They dare not view the stars above them!
They, in their fields, tares only sow!
Headlong they sink,
Self-sacrificed, to endless woe.
372
3
The Lord hath said, whom angels worship,Thou shalt not steal! thou shalt not slay!
Yet men, with hearts beguiled by Satan,
Venture that God to disobey:
Who steals, would kill;
Crimes thicken in the downward way!
4
Lord! fill us with the upright spirit,That can each sordid thought despise!
May none desire to wrong another,
Nor steal, for aught below the skies!
To give account,
We, at the Judgment day, must rise!
5
Let us not sell our soul! that jewel!Which worlds in vain might strive to buy!
The good for which that pearl we offer,
Will soon, as dust, before us lie!
The soul once lost,
Is lost to all eternity!
471. Ninth Commandment. “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”
1
Truth shines in yonder world of glory,(Faint emblem'd by the radiant star,)
The Lord of truth is King in Zion,
And all but truth must stand afar
From that bless'd world,
Where God and happy spirits are.
2
Shall we, unmindful of our Maker,False witness 'gainst our neighbour bear?
Whom God and nature teach to cherish,
And never to oppress, but spare:
May we henceforth
From falsehood flee, and wrath forbear!
373
3
The days of darkness fast are hastening,When sympathy our hearts will need;
This we shall find, if truth and kindness
Ourselves have shown, in word and deed:
Discord and lies
From hell, their secret source, proceed.
4
If we, ere this, have wrong'd our neighbour,Now may we juster ways pursue;
And if our neighbour be transgressor,
Let us, by love, his wrath subdue;
May we look on,
And keep eternal things in view.
5
Death, healer of a thousand breaches,May now, with silent step, be near;
Let us no longer wrong our neighbour,
But live in concord, truth revere,
And, at the last,
May we in robes of white appear!
472. Tenth Commandment. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house,” &c.
1
The Lord, in his unerring counsels,Denies his blessings, or bestows:
His plans, ordain'd for countless ages,
In darkness veil'd! what seraph knows?
Yet all is right;
From him alone perfection flows.
2
He owns, who deals our earthly portion,The cattle on a thousand hills;
The elements to him are subject!
The whirlwind his design fulfils!
374
He rules the blast, the storm he stills!
3
Sinners can nothing claim from heaven;All is his gift, desert is none:
We have our highest Friend forsaken,
And, by our deeds, ourselves undone;
Yet light appears,
We have a hope through Christ his Son!
4
Clothed with unutterable meannessThe covetous comes creeping forth!
His envious eye he casts around him,
And thinks for him the teeming earth
Gives forth its sweets,
Offering to his superior worth.
5
Whate'er he sees, no rights regarding,He would possess, “in mountain mass;”
And now his neighbour's house he covets,
And now his wife, his ox, his ass!
Remembering not,
The bound which God forbids to pass.
6
This is the mandate of Jehovah,(Oh whom with awe arch-angels gaze!)
Nothing, whate'er, that is thy neighbour's,
Thy covetous regard shall raise:
All gifts are mine,
And dark, though righteous, are my ways.
7
Father! may each desire unruly,Our souls with holy ardour shun!
May we restrain our wants, and covet,
Alone — resemblance to thy Son!
Learning to say
Give, or withhold, — Thy Will be done!
| Hymns and Sacred Lyrics | |