LIFTING THE SOUL TO GOD.
By Quarles
"Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul." Ps. xxv, 1. Fountain of light and living breath,
Whose mercies never fail nor fade;
Fill me with life that hath no death,
Fill me with light that hath no shade;
Appoint the remnant of my days
To see thy power, and sing thy praise. Lord God of gods, before whose throne
Stand storms of fire! O, what shall we
Return to heaven, that is our own,
When all the world belongs to thee?
We have no offering to impart,
But praises and a wounded heart. O thou, that sitt'st in heaven, and seest
My deeds without, my thoughts within,—
Be thou my prince, be thou my priest,
Command my soul, and cure my sin;
How bitter my afflictions be
I care not, so I rise to thee. What I possess, or what I crave,
Brings no content, great God, to me,—
If what I would, or what I have,
Be not possessed and blest in thee;
What I enjoy, O, make it mine,
In making me, that have it, thine. When winter fortunes cloud the brows
Of summer friends, when eyes grow strange,
When plighted faith forgets its vows,
When earth and all things in it change,
O Lord, thy mercies fail me never;
Thy boundless love is mine for ever.
[Quarles.