See JEHOVAH'S banner furled,
Sheathed His sword:-He speaks-'tis done;
And the kingdoms of this world
Are the kingdoms of His Son.
He shall reign from pole to pole,
With illimitable sway;
He shall reign, when, like a scroll,
Yonder heavens have passed away:
Then the end :-beneath His rod,
Man's last enemy shall fall;
Hallelujah! Christ in GOD,
GOD in Christ, is All-in-all.
WHAT are these in bright array?
This innumerable throng,
Round the altar, night and day,
Tuning their triumphant song?
"Worthy is the Lamb once slain,
Blessing, honour, glory, power,.
Wisdom, riches, to obtain;
New dominion every hour."
These through fiery trials trod ;
These from great affliction came;
Now before the throne of GOD,
Sealed with His eternal name;
Clad in raiment pure and white,
Victor-palms in every hand,
Through their great Redeemer's might,
More than conquerors they stand
Hunger, thirst, disease unknown,
On immortal fruits they feed;
Them the Lamb, amidst the throne,
Shall to living fountains lead;
Joy and gladness banish sighs,
Perfect love dispels their fears
And for ever from their eyes
GOD shall wipe away all tears.
WHAT is the world?-A wildering maze,
Where Sin hath tracked ten thousand ways,
Her victims to ensnare;
All broad, and winding, and aslope,
All tempting with perfidious hope,
All ending in despair.
Millions of pilgrims throng those roads,
Bearing their baubles, or their loads,
Down to eternal night:
One humble path, that never bends,
Narrow, and rough, and steep, ascends
From darkness into light.
Is there a Guide to show that path?
The Bible:-he alone, who hath
The Bible, need not stray;
Yet he who hath, and will not give
That heavenly Guide to all that live,
Himself shall lose the way.
Occasioned by the sudden death of the Rev. Thomas Taylor; after having declared in his last sermon, on a preceding evening, that he hoped to die as an old soldier of Jesus Christ, with his sword in his hand.
"SERVANT 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 in the field,
A veteran slumbering on his arm's,
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 smote between :
'Twas death to sin;-'t was life
To all that mourned for sin;
It kindled and it silenced strife,
Made war and peace within.
Oft with its fiery force,
His arm had quelled 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
Burst its encumbering clay;
His tent, at sunrise, on the ground
A darkened ruin lay.
The pains of death are past,
Labour and sorrow cease,
And life's long warfare closed at last,
His soul is found in peace.
Soldier of Christ! well done;
Praise be thy new employ;
And while eternal ages run,
Rest in thy Saviour's joy.
How few and evil are thy days,
Man of a woman born!
Trouble and peril haunt thy ways:
-Forth like a flower at morn
The tender infant springs to light,
Youth blossoms with the breeze,
Age, withering age, is cropped ere night,
-Man like a shadow flees.
And dost thou look on such a one?
Will GOD to judgment call
A worm, for what a worm hath done
Against the LORD of all?
As fail the waters from the deep,
As summer brooks run dry,
Man lieth down in dreamless sleep:
-Our life is vanity.
Man lieth down, no more to wake
Till yonder arching sphere
Shall with a roll of thunder break,
And Nature disappear.
-Oh! hide me till Thy wrath be past,
Thou who canst kill or save;
Hide me, where hope may anchor fast,-
In my Redeemer's grave.
THUS far on life's perplexing path,
Thus far the LORD our steps hath led;
Safe from the world's pursuing wrath,
Unharmed though floods hung o'er our head;
Here then we pause, look back, adore,
Like ransomed Israel from the shore.
Strangers and pilgrims here below,
As all our fathers in their day,
We to a Land of Promise go,
LORD! by Thine own appointed way;
Still guide, illumine, cheer our flight,
In cloud by day, in fire by night.
Protect us through this wilderness
From serpent plague and hostile rage;
With bread from heaven our table bless,
With living streams our thirst assuage;
Nor let our rebel hearts repine,
Or follow any voice but Thine.
Thy righteous laws to us proclaim,
But not from Sinai's top alone;
Hid in the rock-cleft, be Thy name,
Thy power, and all Thy goodness shown;
And may we never bow the knee
To any other gods but Thee!
Thy presence with us move or rest;
And as the eagle o'er her brood
Flutters her pinions, stirs the nest,
Covers, defends, provides them food,
Bears on her wings, instructs to fly ;-
Thus, thus prepare us for the sky.
When we have numbered all our years,
And stand at length on Jordan's brink,
Though the flesh fail with human fears,
Oh! let not then the spirit shrink,
But strong in faith, and hope, and love,
Plunge through the stream,—to rise above.
BRIGHT and joyful is the morn,
For to us a Child is born;
From the highest realms of heaven,
Unto us a Son is given.
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