Mark’d by an unerring hand,
In his book recorded stand;
Who can tell the vast amount
Placed to each of our account?
III
Happy the believing soul!
Christ for you has paid the whole;
While you own the debt is large,
You may plead a full discharge:
But, poor careless sinner, say,
What can you to justice pay?
Tremble, lest, when life is past,
Into prison you be cast!
IV
Will you still increase the score?
Still be careless as before?
Oh, forbid it, gracious Lord,
Touch their spirits by thy word!
Now, in mercy to them show
What a mighty debt they owe!
All their unbelief subdue:
Let them find forgiveness too.
V
Spared to see another year,
Let thy blessing meet us here;
Come, thy dying work revive,
Bid thy drooping garden thrive:
Sun of righteousness, arise!
Warm our hearts, and bless our eyes;
Let our pray’r thy bowels move,
Make this year a time of love.
5
Death and War. 1778
By Newton
I
Hark! how Time’s wide-sounding bell
Strikes on each attentive ear!
Tolling loud the solemn knell
Of the late departed year:
Years, like mortals, wear away,
Have their birth and dying day,
Youthful spring and wintry age,
Then to others quit the stage.
II
Sad experience may relate
What a year the last has been:
Crops of sorrow have been great
From the fruitful seeds of sin:
Oh! what numbers, gay and blithe,
Fell by Death’s unsparing scythe,
While they thought the world their own,
Suddenly he mow’d them down!
III
See how War, with dreadful stride,
Marches at the Lord’s command,
Spreading desolation wide
Through a once much-favour’d land:
War, with heart and arms of steel,
Preys on thousands at a meal;
Daily drinking human gore,
Still he thirsts and calls for more.
IV
If the God whom we provoke
Hither should his way direct;
What a sin-avenging stroke
May a land like this expect!
They who now securely sleep,
Quickly then would wake and weep;
And too late would learn to fear,
When they saw the danger near.
V
You are safe who know his love;
He will all his truth perform;
To your souls a refuge prove
From the rage of every storm:
But we tremble for the youth!
Teach them, Lord, thy saving truth;
Join them to thy faithful few,
Be to them a refuge too.
6
Earthly Prospects Deceitful
By Newton
I
Oft in vain the voice of truth
Solemnly and loudly warns;
Thoughtless, inexperienced youth,
Though it hears, the warning scorns:
Youth in fancy’s glass surveys
Life prolong’d to distant years,
While the vast imagined space
Fill’d with sweets and joys appears.
II
Awful disappointment soon
Overclouds the prospect gay;
Some their sun goes down at noon,
Torn by death’s strong hand away:
Where are then their pleasing schemes?
Where the joys they hoped to find?
Gone for ever, like their dreams,
Leaving not a trace behind.
III
Others, who are spared awhile,
Live to weep o’er fancy’s cheat;
Find distress and pain and toil,
Bitter things instead of sweet:
Sin has spread a curse around,
Poison’d all things here below;
On this base polluted ground
Peace and joy can never grow
IV
Grace alone can cure our ills,
Sweeten life with all its cares,
Regulate our stubborn wills,
Save us from surrounding snares:
Though you oft have heard in vain,
Former years in folly spent,
Grace invites you yet again,
Once more calls you to repent.
V
Call’d again, at length beware,
Hear the Saviour’s voice and live;
Lest he in his wrath should swear,
He no more will warning give;
Pray that you may hear and feel,
Ere the day of grace be past;
Lest your hearts grow hard as steel,
Or this year should prove your last.
Before Annual Sermons to Young People on New-Year’s Evenings
7
Prayer for a Blessing
By Newton
I
Now, gracious Lord, thine arm reveal,
And make thy glory known;
Now let us all thy presence feel,
And soften hearts of stone!
II
Help us to venture near thy throne,
And plead a Saviour’s name;
For all that we can call our own
Is vanity and shame.
III
From all the guilt of former sin
May mercy set us free;
And let the year we now begin
Begin and end with thee.
IV
Send down thy Spirit from above,
That saints may love thee more;
And sinners now may learn to love
Who never loved before.
V
And when before thee we appear,
In our eternal home,
May growing numbers worship here,
And praise thee in our room.
8
Another
By Cowper
I
Bestow, dear Lord, upon our youth
The gift of saving grace;
And let the seed of sacred truth
Fall in a fruitful place.
II
Grace is a plant, where’er it grows,
Of pure and heav’nly root;
But fairest in the youngest shows,
And yields the sweetest fruit.
III
Ye careless ones, hear betimes
The voice of sovereign love!
Your youth is stain’d with many crimes,
But mercy reigns above.
IV
True, you are young, but there’s a stone
Within the youngest breast;
Or half the crimes which you have done
Would rob you of your rest.
V
For you the public prayer is made,
Oh! join the public prayer;
For you the sacred tear is shed,
Oh! shed yourselves a tear.
VI
We pray that you may early prove
The Spirit’s power to teach;
You cannot be too young to love
That Jesus whom we preach.
9
Another
By Newton
I
Now may fervent prayer arise,
Wing’d with faith, and pierce the skies;
Fervent prayer shall bring us down
Gracious answers from the throne.
II
Bless, O Lord, the opening year
To each soul assembled here;
Clothe the word with power divine,
Make us willing to be thine.
III
Shepherd of thy blood-bought sheep!
Teach the stony heart to weep;
Let the blind have eyes to see,
See themselves and look on thee!
IV
Let the minds of all our youth
Feel the force of sacred truth;
While the gospel call we hear,
May they learn to love and fear.
V
Show them what their ways have been,
Show them the desert of sin;
Then thy dying love reveal,
This shall melt a heart of steel.
VI
Where thou hast thy work begun,
Give new strength the race to run;
Scatter darkness, doubts, and fears,
Wipe away the mourner’s tears.
VII
Bless us all, both
