Hymns for Christian Devotion Part 128

776. C. M. Watts.

Love and Charity.

1 Let Pharisees of high esteem Their faith and zeal declare,-- All their religion is a dream, If love be wanting there.

2 Love suffers long with patient eye, Nor is provoked in haste; She lets the present injury die, And long forgets the past.

3 Malice and rage, those fires of h.e.l.l, She quenches with her tongue; Hopes and believes, and thinks no ill, Though she endures the wrong.

4 Love is the grace that keeps her power In all the realms above; There faith and hope are known no more, But saints forever love.

777. L. M. E. H. Chapin.

Anniversary of a Charitable a.s.sociation.

1 When long the soul had slept in chains, And man to man was stern and cold; When love and wors.h.i.+p were but strains That swept the gifted chords of old-- By shady mount and peaceful lake, meek and lowly stranger came, The weary drank the words he spake, The poor and feeble blessed his name.

2 No shrine he reared in porch or grove, No vested priests around him stood-- He went about to teach, and prove The lofty work of doing good.

Said he, to those who with him trod, "Would ye be my disciples? Then Evince your ardent love for G.o.d By the kind deeds ye do for men."

3 He went where frenzy held its rule, Where sickness breathed its spell of pain; By famed Bethesda's mystic pool; And by the darkened gate of Nain.

He soothed the mourner's troubled breast, He raised the contrite, sinner's head, And on the loved ones' lowly rest, The light of better life he shed.

4 Father, the spirit Jesus knew, We humbly ask of thee to-night, That we may be disciples too Of him whose way was love and light.

Bright be the places where we tread Amid earth's suffering and its poor, Till we shall come where tears are shed And broken sighs are heard no more.

778. C. M. W. Croswell.

Imitation of Christ's Kindness.

1 Lord, lead the way the Saviour went By lane and cell obscure, And let our treasures still be spent, Like his, upon the poor.

2 Like him, through scenes of deep distress, Who bore the world's sad weight, We, in their gloomy loneliness, Would seek the desolate.

3 For thou hast placed us side by side In this wide world of ill; And that thy followers may be tried, The poor are with us still.

4 Small are the offerings we can make; Yet thou hast taught us, Lord, If given for the Saviour's sake, They lose not their reward.

779. C. M. Peabody.

For a Charitable Occasion.

1 Who is thy neighbor? he whom thou Hast power to aid or bless; Whose aching heart or burning brow Thy soothing hand may press.

2 Thy neighbor? 'tis the fainting poor, Whose eye with want is dim; O enter thou his humble door, With aid and peace for him.

3 Thy neighbor? he who drinks the cup When sorrow drowns the brim; With words of high sustaining hope, Go thou and comfort him.

4 Thy neighbor? 'tis the weary slave, Fettered in mind and limb; He hath no hope this side the grave; Go thou, and ransom him.

5 Thy neighbor? pa.s.s no mourner by; Perhaps thou canst redeem A breaking heart from misery; Go, share thy lot with him.

780. L. M. Pratt's Coll.

The Blessedness of considering the Poor. Ps. 41:1-3.

1 Blest who with generous pity glows, Who learns to feel another's woes; Bows to the poor man's wants his ear, And wipes the helpless orphan's tear!

In every want, in every woe, Himself thy pity, Lord, shall know.

2 Thy love his life shall guard, thy hand Give to his lot the chosen land; Nor leave him, in the troubled day, To unrelenting foes a prey.

In sickness thou shall raise his head, And make with tenderest care his bed.

781. L. M. J. G. Adams.

For a Charitable Meeting.

1 G.o.d of the poor! whose listening ear Is sought by want's imploring cry,-- Whose bounty and whose grace are near, Thy needy children to supply:--

2 To whom with more acceptance rise The words of mercy's voice divine, Than pompous rites, or sacrifice Of flocks and herds, of oil and wine.

3 Where'er the poor our aid demand, Teach us with ready steps to move, Give us the zealous heart and hand To do the work of Christian love;--

4 The downcast spirit to revive, The fainting heart with joy to bless; To bid the solitary live-- The widow and the fatherless.

5 Thus will we thank thee that thy grace Inclined our feet in paths to go Where s.h.i.+nes that brightness of thy face, Which the obedient only know.