University of Virginia Library

HYMN XIII.

[PART I.]

[Stay, thou triumphant spirit, stay]

Stay, thou triumphant spirit, stay,
And bless me ere thou soar'st away,
Where pain can never come!
In vain my call; the soul is fled,
By Israel's flaming steeds convey'd
To her eternal home.
Yet lo! I now the blessing find,
The legacy she left behind,
Fruit of her latest prayer:
The answer in my heart I feel,
This fresh supply of heavenly zeal,
To live and die like her.

240

She lived to serve the God unknown,
And following in a land not sown,
A thorny wilderness,
Beneath the yoke of legal fear
She labour'd hard, with heart sincere,
To buy the Saviour's peace.
Faithful she then in little was;
And zealous for religion's cause,
To please the Lord most high,
In serving man she humbly sought,
But blindly by her duties thought
Herself to justify.
Yet when she heard the gospel sound,
That grace doth more than sin abound,
That pardoning grace is free,
She cast her righteous rags aside,
She closed at once with Christ, and cried,
“He bought the peace for me!”
From hence the fight of faith begun,
From hence in Jesus' steps she run,
Nor e'er disgraced the cause,
Meek follower of the patient Lamb,
She prized His honourable shame,
And gloried in His cross.
By all the rage of fiends and men,
(The vehement stream, the beating rain,)
Assail'd on every side,
Nor men nor fiends her firmness shock;
The house was built upon a Rock,
And every storm defied.

241

What tongue her hidden worth can tell,
Her active faith and fervent zeal,
And works of righteousness,
Her thirst and reverence for the word,
Her love to those who loved her Lord,
Or but desired His grace!
She loved them both in word and deed,
O'erjoy'd an hungry Christ to feed,
To visit Him in pain;
Him in His members she relieved,
And freely as she first received,
Gave Him her all again.
How did her generous bounty deal
The widow's scanty oil and meal,
A treasure for the poor?
A treasure spent without decrease,
As miracle revived to bless
The consecrated store.
But who can paint the strong desire,
The holy heaven-enkindled fire
That glow'd within her breast,
To' ensure the bliss of friends and foes,
To save the precious souls of those
She ever loved the best!
Witness, ye children of her prayers,
Ye objects of her tenderest cares,
Into her bosom given,
Did not her yearning bowels move
With more than a maternal love
To train you up for heaven?

242

Can you her artless warmth forget,
Her eager haste to turn your feet
Into the narrow road,
Her counsels kind, her warning fears,
Her loud protests, or silent tears,
Whene'er ye stray'd from God!
She took your guardian angel's part,
She watch'd the motions of your heart
To pride and pleasure prone;
For you she spent her latest breath,
And urged you both in life and death
To love the Lord alone.