Library · Hymns and Spiritual Songs
Book 2 · Hymns 31–40
Hymns and Spiritual Songs · Isaac Watts
Hymn 2:31. Christ's presence makes death easy.
1 Why should we start and fear to die?
What timorous worms we mortals are!
Death is the gate of endless joy,
And yet we dread to enter there.
2 The pains, the groans, and dying strife,
Fright our approaching souls away;
Still we shrink back again to life,
Fond of our prison and our clay.
3 O, if my Lord would come and meet,
My soul should stretch her wings in haste,
Fly fearless thro' death's iron gate,
Nor feel the terrors as she pass'd.
4 Jesus can make a dying bed
Feel soft as downy pillows are,
While on his breast I lean my head,
And breathe my life out sweetly there.
Hymn 2:32. Frailty and Folly.
1 How short and hasty is our life!
How vast our souls' affairs!
Yet senseless mortals vainly strive
To lavish out their years.
2 Our days run thoughtlessly along,
Without a moment's stay;
Just like a story or a song
We pass our lives away.
3 God from on high invites us home,
But we march heedless on,
And ever hastening to the tomb,
Stoop downwards as we run.
4 How we deserve the deepest hell
That slight the joys above!
What chains of vengeance should we feel
That break such cords of love!
5 Draw us, O God, with sovereign grace,
And lift our thoughts on high,
That we may end this mortal race
And see salvation nigh.
Hymn 2:33. The blessed society in heaven.
1 Raise thee, my soul, fly up, and run
Thro' every heavenly street,
And say, there's nought below the sun
That's worthy of thy feet.
2 [Thus will we mount on sacred wings,
And tread the courts above;
Nor earth, nor all her mightiest things
Shall tempt our meanest love.]
3 There on a high majestic throne
Th' Almighty Father reigns,
And sheds his glorious goodness down
On all the blissful plains.
4 Bright like a sun the Saviour sits,
And spreads eternal noon,
No evenings there, nor gloomy nights,
To want the feeble moon.
5 Amidst those ever-shining skies
Behold the sacred Dove,
While banish'd sin and sorrow flies
From all the realms of love.
6 The glorious tenants of the place
Stand bending round the throne;
And saints and seraphs sing and praise
The infinite Three One.
7 [But O what beams of heavenly grace
Transport them all the while!
Ten thousand smiles from Jesus' face,
And love in every smile!]
8 [Jesus, and when shall that dear day,
That joyful hour appear,
When I shall leave this house of clay
To dwell amongst them there?]
Hymn 2:34. Breathing after the Holy Spirit; or, Fervency of devotion desired.
1 Come, holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
With all thy quickening powers,
Kindle a flame of sacred love,
In these cold hearts of ours.
2 Look, how we grovel here below,
Fond of these trifling toys;
Our souls can neither fly nor go
To reach eternal joys.
3 In vain we tune our formal songs,
In vain we strive to rise;
Hosannas languish on our tongues,
And our devotion dies.
4 Dear Lord! and shall we ever lie
At this poor dying rate?
Our love so faint, so cold to thee,
And thine to us so great?
5 Come holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
With all thy quickening powers;
Come shed abroad a Saviour's love,
And that shall kindle ours.
Hymn 2:35. Praise to God for creation and redemption.
1 Let them neglect thy glory, Lord,
Who never knew thy grace,
But our loud songs shall still record
The wonders of thy praise.
2 We raise our shouts, O God, to thee,
And send them to thy throne,
All glory to th' united Three,
The undivided One.
3 'Twas he (and we'll adore his Name)
That form'd us by a word,
'Tis he restores our ruin'd frame;
Salvation to the Lord.
4 Hosanna! let the earth and skies
Repeat the joyful sound,
Rocks, hills, and vales, reflect the voice
In one eternal round.
Hymn 2:36. Christ's intercession.
1 Well, the Redeemer's gone
T' appear before our God,
To sprinkle o'er the flaming throne
With his atoning blood.
2 No fiery vengeance now,
Nor burning wrath comes down;
If justice call for sinners' blood,
The Saviour shews his own.
3 Before his Father's eye
Our humble suit he moves,
The Father lays his thunder by,
And looks, and smiles, and loves.
4 Now may our joyful tongues
Our Maker's honour sing,
Jesus the priest receives our songs,
And bears them to the King.
5 [We bow before his face,
And sound his glories high,
"Hosanna to the God of grace
"That lays his thunder by.]
6 "On earth thy mercy reigns,
"And triumphs all above;"
But, Lord how weak are mortal strains
To speak immortal love!
7 [How jarring and how low
Are all the notes we sing!
Sweet Saviour, tune our songs anew,
And they shall please the King.]
Hymn 2:37. The same.
1 Lift up your eyes to th' heavenly seats
Where your Redeemer stays;
Kind intercessor, there he sits,
And loves, and pleads, and prays.
2 'Twas well, my soul he dy'd for thee,
And shed his vital blood,
Appeas'd stern justice on the tree,
And then arose to God.
3 Petitions now and praise may rise,
And saints their offerings bring,
The priest with his own sacrifice
Presents them to the King.
4 [Let Papists trust what names they please,
Their saints and angels boast;
We've no such advocates as these,
Nor pray to th' heavenly host.]
6 Jesus alone shall bear my cries
Up to his Father's throne,
He, dearest Lord! perfumes my sighs,
And sweetens every groan.
6 [Ten thousand praises to the King,
Hosanna in the highest;
Ten thousand thanks our spirits bring
To God and to his Christ.]
Hymn 2:38. Love to God.
1 Happy the heart where graces reign,
Where love inspires the breast;
Love is the brightest of the train,
And strengthens all the rest.
9 Knowledge, alas! 'Tis all in vain,
And all in vain our fear,
Our stubborn sins will fight and reign
If love be absent there.
3 'Tis love that makes our cheerful feet
In swift obedience move,
The devils know and tremble too,
But Satan cannot love.
4 This is the grace that lives and sings
When faith and hope shall cease,
'Tis this shall strike our joyful strings
In the sweet realms of bliss.
5 Before we quite forsake our clay,
Or leave this dark abode,
The wings of love bear us away
To see our smiling God.
Hymn 2:39. The shortness and misery of life.
1 Our days, alas! our mortal days
Are short and wretched too;
"Evil and few," the patriarch says, [1]
And well the patriarch knew.
2 'Tis but at best a narrow bound
That heaven allows to men,
And pains and sins run thro' the round
Of threescore years and ten.
3 Well, if ye must be sad and few,
Run on, my days, in haste;
Moments of sin, and months of woe,
Ye cannot fly too fast.
4 Let heavenly love prepare my soul,
And call her to the skies,
Where years of long salvation roll,
And glory never dies.
[1] Genesis 47:9.
Hymn 2:40. Our comfort in the covenant made with Christ.
1 Our God, how firm his promise stands,
E'en when he hides his face!
He trusts in our Redeemer's hands
His glory and his grace.
2 Then why, my soul, these sad complaints,
Since Christ and we are one;
Thy God is faithful to his saints,
Is faithful to his Son.
3 Beneath his smiles my heart has liv'd,
And part of heaven possess'd;
I praise his Name for grace receiv'd,
And trust him for the rest.