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Reading edition
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.—Exodus, xx. 7.
Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and for evermore.—Psalm cxiii. 2.
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.—Proverbs, xxii. 1.
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.—Philippians, ii. 9, 10.
We wish our names eternally to live. Wild dream! which ne’er had haunted human thought, Had not our natures been eternal too. Instinct points out an interest in hereafter, But our blind reason sees not where it lies; Or seeing, gives the substance for the shade. Young.
In the fair book of life and grace, O may I find my name Recorded in some humble place, Beneath my Lord the Lamb. Watts.
I read His awful name emblazoned high, With golden letters, on the illumined sky; Nor less the mystic characters I see Wrought in each flower, inscribed on every tree: In every leaf that trembles to the breeze, I hear the voice of God among the trees. Mrs. Barbauld.
Wide he extends His royalties, and still the throne adorns With piety and mercy. Loved and feared. Twice twenty years, with equitable hand, He sways the sceptre; then in peace repose His ashes, but his name lives evermore. Charles Hoyle.
O blessed Father, righteous Lord! Within Thy book of life record My undeserving name; Teach me to know and do Thy will; My heart with holy longings fill, And heavenly love inflame. Bayly.
Alone I walk’d the ocean strand, A pearly shell was in my hand; I stoop’d and wrote upon the sand My name, the year, the day. As onward from the spot I pass’d, One lingering look I fondly cast; A wave came rolling high and fast, And wash’d my lines away. And so, methought, ’twill shortly be With every mark on earth from me; A wave of dark oblivion’s sea Will sweep across the place Where I have trod the sandy shore Of time, and been to be no more; Of me—my day—the name I bore, To leave no track nor trace. And yet with Him, who counts the sands, And holds the waters in His hands, I know a lasting record stands Inscribed against my name, Of all this mortal part has wrought— Of all this thinking soul has thought, And from these fleeting moments caught For glory or for shame. Miss Gould.
The card-built house amused our infant age; The child was pleased; but is the man more sage? A breath could level childhood’s tottering toy: See manhood—effort, art, and time employ, To build that brittle name a whisper can destroy! There is a Book where nought our name can spot, If we ourselves refuse to fix the blot; ’Tis kept by One that sets alike at nought The tale with malice or with flatt’ry fraught,— He reads the heart, and sees the whisper in the thought. C. C. Colton.
Jesus, the spring of joys divine, Whence all our hopes and comforts flow: Jesus, no other name but Thine Can save us from eternal woe. Steele.