MORNINGTON. S.M.

LORD MORNINGTON.

8

A

MEN.

483. " Then shall we be forever with the Lord."

"FOREVER with the Lord!"
Amen; so let it be;

Life from the dead is in that word,
'Tis immortality.

Here in the body pent,
Absent from him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A day's march nearer home.

My Father's house on high!
Home of my soul, how near
At times to faith's foreseeing eye
Thy golden gates appear !

Yet clouds will intervene,
And all my prospect flies;
Like Noah's dove, I flit between
Rough seas and stormy skies.
Anon the clouds depart,
The winds and waters cease,
While sweetly o'er my gladdened heart
Expands the bow of peace.

Beneath its glowing arch,
Along the hallowed ground,
I see cherubic armies march,
A camp of fire around.

James Montgomery.

484.

“Hold thou me up, and I shall stand."

I HEAR at morn and even,
At noon and midnight hour,
The choral harmonies of heaven

Earth's Babel-tongues o'erpower.
Then, then I feel that he
(Remembered or forgot),
The Lord, is never far from me,
Though I perceive him not.

All that I am, have been,
All that I yet may be,

He sees at once, as he hath seen,
And shall forever see.

"Forever with the Lord!" Father, if 't is thy will, The promise of that faithful word, Even here to me fulfil.

Be thou at my right hand, Then can I never fail; Uphold thou me, and I shall stand, Fight, and I must prevail.

So when my latest breath Shall rend the veil in twain, By death I shall escape from death, And life eternal gain.

James Montgomery.