1 O GOD, thou bottomless abyss!
Thee to perfection who can know?
O height immense! What words suffice
Thy countless attributes to show?
Unfathomable depths thou art;
O plunge me in thy mercy's sea!
Void of true wisdom is my heart;
With love embrace and cover me:
While thee, all-infinite, I set
By faith before my ravished eye,
My weakness bends beneath the weight;
O'erpowered I sink, I faint, I die.

2 Eternity thy fountain was,
Which, like thee, no beginning knew;
Thou wast ere time began his race,
Ere glowed with stars the ethereal blue.
Greatness unspeakable is thine,
Greatness, whose undiminished ray,
When short-lived worlds are lost, shall shine,
When earth and heaven are fled away.
Unchangeable, all-perfect Lord,
Essential life's unbounded sea,
What lives and moves, lives by thy word;
It lives, and moves, and is from thee.

3 Thy parent-hand, thy forming skill,
Firm fixed this universal chain;
Else empty, barren darkness still
Had held his unmolested reign.
Whate'er in earth, or sea, or sky,
Or shuns or meets the wandering thought,
Escapes or strikes the searching eye,
By thee was to perfection brought.
High is thy power above all height,
Whate'er thy will decrees is done;
Thy wisdom, equal to thy might,
Only to thee, O God, is known!

4 Heaven's glory is thy awful throne,
Yet earth partakes thy gracious sway:
Vain man! thy wisdom folly own,
Lost is thy reason's feeble ray.
What our dim eye could never see,
Is plain and naked to thy sight;
What thickest darkness veils, to thee
Shines clearly as the morning light.
In light thou dwell'st; light that no shade,
No variation, ever knew;
Heaven, earth, and hell, stand all displayed,
And open to thy piercing view.

1 O GOD, the help of all thy saints,
Our hope in time of ill:
We trust thee, though thy face be hid,
And seek thy presence still.

2 Why should the men of pride and sin
Thy truth and power defy;
And boast, as if their evil way
Were hidden from thine eye?

3 Lord, thou hast seen; arise and save;
To thee our cause we bring;
Reign thou in righteousness and power,
For thou alone art King.

4 All our desires to thee are known;
Thy help is ever near;
O first prepare our hearts to pray,
And then accept our prayer!

1 O GOD, my hope, my heavenly rest,
My all of happiness below,
Grant my importunate request,
To me, to me, thy goodness show;
Thy beatific face display,
The brightness of eternal day.

2 Before my faith's enlightened eyes
Make all thy gracious goodness pass;
Thy goodness is the sight I prize,
O might I see thy smiling face!
Thy nature in my soul proclaim,
Reveal thy love, thy glorious name!

3 There, in the place beside thy throne,
Where all that find acceptance stand,
Receive me up into thy Son;
Cover me with thy mighty hand;
Set me upon the rock, and hide
My soul in Jesu's wounded side.

4 O put me in the cleft; empower
My soul the glorious sight to bear!
Descend in this accepted hour,
Pass by me, and thy name declare;
Thy wrath withdraw, thy hand remove,
And show thy self the God of love.

1 O GOD, my God, my all thou art!
Ere shines the dawn of rising day,
Thy sovereign light within my heart,
Thy all-enlivening power display.

2 For thee my thirsty soul doth pant,
While in this desert land I live;
And hungry as I am, and faint,
Thy love alone can comfort give.

3 In a dry land, behold, I place
My whole desire on thee, O Lord;
And more I joy to gain thy grace,
Than all earth's treasures can afford.

4 More dear than life itself, thy love
My heart and tongue shall still employ;
And to declare thy praise will prove
My peace, my glory, and my joy.

5 In blessing thee with grateful songs
My happy life shall glide away;
The praise that to thy name belongs
Hourly with lifted hands I'll pay.

6 Abundant sweetness, while I sing
Thy love, my ravished heart o'erflows;
Secure in thee, my God and King,
Of glory that no period knows.

7 Thy name, O God, upon my bed
Dwells on my lips, and fires my thought;
With trembling awe, in midnight shade,
I muse on all thy hands have wrought.

8 In all I do I feel thine aid;
Therefore thy greatness will I sing,
O God, who bidd'st my heart be glad
Beneath the shadow of thy wing!

9 My soul draws nigh and cleaves to thee:
Then let or earth or hell assail,
Thy mighty hand shall set me free;
For whom thou sav'st, he ne'er shall fail.

1 O GOD, if thou art love indeed,
Let it once more be proved in me,
That I thy mercy's praise may spread,
For every child of Adam free;
O let me now the gift embrace!
O let me now be saved by grace!

2 If all long-suffering thou hast shown
On me, that others may believe,
Now make thy loving-kindness known,
Now the all-conquering Spirit give,
Spirit of victory and power,
That I may never grieve thee more.

3 Grant my importunate request!
It is not my desire, but thine;
Since thou wouldst have the sinner blest,
Now let me in thine image shine,
Nor ever from thy footsteps move,
But more than conquer through thy love.

4 Be it according to thy will!
Set my imprisoned spirit free;
The counsel of thy grace fulfil;
Into thy glorious liberty
My spirit, soul, and flesh restore,
And I shall never grieve thee more.

1 O GOD! how often hath thine ear
To me in willing mercy bowed!
While worshipping thine altar near,
Lowly I wept, and strongly vowed:
But ah! the feebleness of man!
Have I not vowed and wept in vain?

2 Return, O Lord of hosts, return!
Behold thy servant in distress;
My faithlessness again I mourn;
Again forgive my faithlessness;
And to thine arms my spirit take,
And bless me for the Saviour's sake.

3 In pity of the soul thou lov'st,
Now bid the sin thou hat'st expire;
Let me desire what thou approv'st,
Thou dost approve what I desire;
And thou wilt deign to call me thine,
And I will dare to call thee mine.

4 This day the covenant I sign,
The bond of sure and promised peace;
Nor can I doubt its power divine,
Since sealed with Jesu's blood it is:
That blood I trust, that blood alone,
And make the covenant peace mine own.

5 But, that my faith no more may know
Or change, or interval, or end,
Help me in all thy paths to go,
And now, as e'er, my voice attend,
And gladden me with answers mild,
And commune, Father, with thy child!

1 O GOD! our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home:

2 Under the shadow of thy throne,
Still may we dwell secure;
Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defence is sure.

3 Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting thou art God,
To endless years the same.

4 A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an evening gone,
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

5 The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their cares and fears,
Are carried downward by the flood,
And lost in following years.

6 Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

7 O God! our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while life shall last,
And our perpetual home.