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Social Worship.

88

L. M.

Entroduction to Evening Worship.

BOWRING.

1 How shall we praise thee, Lord of light!
How shall we all thy love declare!

The earth is veiled in shades of night,
But heaven is open to our prayer:
That heaven, so bright with stars and suns,

That glorious heaven, which has no bound, Where the full tide of being runs,

And life and beauty glow around.

2 We would adore thee, God sublime,

Whose power and wisdom, love and grace,
Are greater than the round of time,
And wider than the bounds of space.
O, how shall thought expression find,
All lost in thine immensity!

How shall we seek thee, glorious Mind,
Amid thy dread infinity!

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3 But thou art present with us here,

As in thy glittering, high domain;
And grateful hearts and humble fear
Can never seek thy face in vain.
Help us to praise thee, Lord of light;
Help us thy boundless love declare;
And, while we crowd thy courts to-night,
Aid us, and hearken to our prayer.

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1 0 THAT we all might now begin
Our foolishness to mourn;
And turn at once from every sin,
And to our Saviour turn.

2 Give us ourselves and thee to know,
In this our gracious day;
Repentance unto life bestow,
And take our sins away.

3 Conclude us first in unbelief,
And freely then release;

Fill every soul with sacred grief,
And then with sacred peace.

4 Impoverish, Lord, and then relieve,
And then enrich the poor;

The knowledge of our sickness give;
The knowledge of our cure.

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1 OUR God, where'er thy people meet,
There they behold thy mercy-seat;
Where'er they seek thee, thou art found,
And every place is hallowed ground.

2 For thou, within no walls confined,
Inhabitest the humble mind;

Such ever bring thee where they come,
And, going, take thee to their home.

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3 Here may we prove the power of prayer,
To strengthen faith, and sweeten care;
To teach our faint desires to rise,
And bring all heaven before our eyes.

4 Lord, we are few, but thou art near;

Nor short thine arm, nor deaf thine ear:
O, rend the heavens, come quickly down,
And make a thousand hearts thine own'

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Freedom in Worship.

1 THOU biddest, Lord, thy sons be bold;
Lord, thou hast set us free;
The dear adoption fast we hold,
The glorious liberty!

2 We stand unto our God how near!
Nor priest nor veil between;
Lord! full unto thine own appear;
We cast away each screen.

3 Thy truth is waiting to be seized;
Thou sweetly bid'st us dare;

We look, we seek, and thou art pleased
To meet us everywhere.

4 Thy Spirit's fulness we embrace,

Away with man's poor dole!
The sweetest visit of thy grace
Asks but an open soul.

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5 Full feels our solemn privacy
The sweet celestial air;

In humble joy we lay on thee
The loving clasp of prayer.

6 We mingle now our inmost fires,
A glowing spirit-throng!

All free and strong of wing, aspires
The passion of our song.

7 Thine own we are, Almighty One!
Thine own would ever be;
Endless thy dear dominion,
Our glorious liberty!

S. M.

Brotherly Love.

1 BLEST are the sons of peace,

Whose hearts and hopes are one ;
Whose kind designs to serve and please
Through all their actions run!

2 Blest is the pious house,

WATTS.

Where zeal and friendship meet;
Their songs of praise, their mingled vows,

Make their communion sweet.

3 Thus on the heavenly hills

The saints are blest above,

Where peace like morning dew distils,

And all the air is love.

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