University of Virginia Library

2340.

[The hoary saint for heaven mature]

The hoary saint for heaven mature
Strengthen'd by this prophetic word,
Those after-sufferings to endure,
In bonds and death pursues his Lord;
His Lord and God he glorifies,
And on a cross like Jesus dies.

128

O for an end like his, whose sin
I have so often made my own,
Ten thousand times unfaithful been
To Christ, as one I ne'er had known,
Ten thousand times by deeds denied,
And trampled on the Crucified.
O could I first repent and prove
The bitterness of Peter's woe;
By labours of intensest love
My loyalty to Jesus show,
And feed His lambs, and feed His sheep,
Yet still go on my way and weep!
Then Lord—but trembling I forbear
To emulate the martyr's crown,
Yet suffer me Thy cross to share,
And lay with life the burden down,
And while Thou dost my spirit receive,
To echo Thy last word, Forgive!