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156

T. H. GILL.

C. M.

Heaven.

1 THE happy fields, the heavenly host,
The realm of rest above,

Do make us gladsome, Lord, but most
The holy land we love.

2 O bright those golden gates must shine
That let no evil in!

That boundless region how divine,

That hath no room for sin !

3 Sweet holy land! sweet with the throng
Of souls divinely pure;

Where holy happy ones among
Thy pilgrims smile secure!

4 No more to weep o'er lustre lent,
O'er grace outpoured in vain;
No more in anguish to repent,
And then offend again;

5 But gloriously to spend that grace
They boundlessly receive,

Nor once thine image to deface,

Nor once thy spirit grieve.

60 here thy servants soon give o'er,

But half thy word fulfil;

How faint their zeal, their strife how sore,

To work the eternal will!

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7 But there

upon thine errands sweet

How holy-swift they run!

What smiling service! how complete
The work divinely done!

8 No tempter there our souls shall stop
Upon the sacred road,

Nor win our weak desires to drop
From glory and from God!

9 But angels kind their raptures blend
As our rapt souls aspire;

Our wingéd zeal their wings they lend,
Our burning love their fire.

10 Still, Lord, with sorrow and with sin
Wars here thy pilgrim band;

Yet blest the warfare that shall win
Thy heaven, our holy land!

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"Blessed are the Dead that Die in the Lord."

1 HEAR what the voice from heaven proclaims

For all the pious dead :

Sweet is the savor of their names,

And soft their sleeping bed.

2 They die in Jesus, and are blessed;
How kind their slumbers are!

From sufferings and from sins released,
And freed from every snare.

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3 Far from this world of toil and strife,
They 're present with the Lord;

The labors of their mortal life

End in a large reward.

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The Righteous Blessed in Death.

1 How blest the righteous when he dies!
When sinks a weary soul to rest,

How mildly beam the closing eyes,

How gently heaves the expiring breast!

2 So fades a summer cloud away,

So sinks the gale when storms are o'er,
So gently shuts the eye of day,
So dies a wave along the shore.

3 A holy quiet reigns around,

A calm which life nor death destroys;
Nothing disturbs that peace profound
Which his unfettered soul enjoys.

4 Farewell, conflicting hopes and. fears,

Where lights and shades alternate dwell!
How bright the unchanging morn appears!
Farewell, inconstant world, farewell!

5 Life's duty done, as sinks the clay,
Light from its load the spirit flies;

While heaven and earth combine to say,
"How blessed the righteous when he dies!"

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8 & 7s M.

METHODIST COL.

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The Dying Christian.

1 HAPPY soul, thy days are ended,
All thy mourning days below;
Go, by angel guards attended,
To the sight of Jesus go.
Waiting to receive thy spirit,

Lo! the Saviour stands above;
Shows the purchase of his merit,
Reaches out the crown of love.

2 Struggle through thy latest passion
To thy great Redeemer's breast;
To his uttermost salvation,

To his everlasting rest.

For the joy he sets before thee,

Bear a momentary pain;

Die, to live a life of glory;

Suffer, with thy Lord to reign.

L. M.

S. WESLEY

The Young cut off in their Prime.

1 THE morning flowers display their sweets,

And their silken leaves unfold,
gay

As careless of the noontide heats

As fearless of the evening cold.

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2 Nipped by the wind's untimely blast,
Parched by the sun's directer ray,
The momentary glories waste,

The short-lived beauties die away.

3 So blooms the human face divine,
When youth its pride of beauty shows;
Fairer than spring the colors shine,
And sweeter than the virgin rose.

4 Or worn by slowly-rolling years,
Or broke by sickness in a day,
The fading glory disappears,

The short-lived beauties die away.

5 Yet these, new rising from the tomb,
With lustre brighter far shall shine,

Revive with ever-during bloom,

Safe from diseases and decline.

6 Let sickness blast, let death devour,
If heaven must recompense our pains:
Perish the grass, and fade the flower,
If firm the word of God remains.

P. M.

Funeral Hymn.

1 BROTHER, thou art gone before us,

And thy saintly soul is flown.

MILMAN.

Where tears are wiped from every eye,

And sorrow is unknown,

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