REDEEMER.

O, blest Redeemer, from Thy sacred throne, Where saints and angels sing Thy triumphs won, From that exalted height of bliss supreme Look down on those who bear Thy Sacred Name; Restore their ways, inspire them by Thy grace, Thy laws to follow, and Thy steps to trace; Thy bright example to Thy doctrine join, And by their morals prove their faith divine! Boyse.

Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates, The King of Glory comes! He comes to clothe This mortal in the unperishable garb Of immortality! Hear it, ye dead, Hear the glad tidings! and with trembling hope Expect that day, when at th’ Archangel’s trump, From the long sleep of many thousand years Ye shall awake—awake to sleep no more: Hear it, O living man, ere greedy Death Consigns thee to the prison of the tomb; Hear and be wise, seek thy Redeemer’s throne; On bending knees implore His healing grace, Chaunt forth His praise and venerate His name. William Bolland.

Then shall the day-spring rise, before whose beams The darkness of the world is past: for hark! Seraphs and angel-choirs with symphonies Acclaiming of ten thousand golden harps, Amid the bursting clouds of heaven reveal’d. At once in glory jubilant,—they sing: “God the Redeemer liveth! He who took Man’s nature on Him, and in human shroud Veil’d His immortal glory! He is risen— God the Redeemer liveth! and behold The gates of life and immortality Opened to all that breathe.” Bowles.

Out of my penitence there has grown hope; I trust and raise my suppliant eyes to Heaven, And when my soul desponds, I meekly say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Miss Landon.

He dies; in whose high victory, The slayer, death himself, shall die, He dies; by whose all-conquering tread Shall yet be crushed the serpent’s head; From his proud throne to darkness hurled, The god and tempter of this world. He dies; creation’s awful Lord, Jehovah, Christ, Eternal Word! To come in thunder from the skies; To bid the buried world arise; The earth His footstool, heaven His throne;— Redeemer! may Thy will be done! Croly.

My blest Redeemer lives.—In that last day When, like the baseless fabric of a dream, Earth’s unsubstantial glories pass away, He then shall stand, acknowledged Lord supreme. My blest Redeemer lives.—Though death the head Consign, a victim to the silent tomb; Though worms around my lifeless body spread, Though noisome worms these mouldering limbs consume, Triumphant still o’er Satan’s power I rise, My God, my God appears, and wakes these languid eyes. Samuel Hayes.

Rejected, scorned, Despised, a man of sorrow and distress, To all the ills which poverty’s chill cold, Or power of tyrant malice could inflict, Exposed a victim, through life’s wretched vale Our blest Redeemer passed. Samuel Hayes.

From all that dwell below the skies Let the Creator’s praise arise; Let the Redeemer’s name be sung Through every land by every tongue. Watts.