souls
Before thy presence bow;
With all thy wasting magazines,
How terrible art thou!

2 The flames thy messengers become,
And their destruction pour,
And that which we in strength had reared
Lies mouldered in an hour.

3 Within our pleasant places, Lord,
Destruction rears its head,
And blackened walls and smoking heaps
Along our streets are spread.

4 Lord, in this hour we come to thee,
With awe adore thy name;
Yet bless the hand of guardian love,
That snatched us from the flame.

994. C. M. E. H. Chapin.

During or after a Great Storm.

1 Amid surrounding gloom and waste,
From nature's face we flee;
And in our fear and wonder haste
O nature's life, to thee!
Thy ways are in the mighty deep;
In tempests as they blow;
In floods that o'er our treasures sweep;
The lightning; and the snow.

2 Though earth upon its axis reels,
And heaven is veiled in wrath;
Not one of nature's million wheels
Breaks its appointed path;
Fixed in thy grasp, the sources meet
Of beauty and of awe;
In storm or calm, all pulses beat
True to the central law.

3 Thou art that law, whose will thus done
In seeming wreck and blight,
Sends the calm planets round the sun,
And pours the moon's soft light.
We trust thy love; thou best dost know
The universal peace;
How long the stormy force should blow,
And when the flood should cease.

4 And though around our path some form
Of mystery ever lies,
And life is like the calm and storm
That checker earth and skies,
Through all its mingling joy and dread,
Permit us, Holy One,
By faith to see the golden thread
Of thy great purpose run.

995. C. M. Addison.

The Traveller's Hymn.

1 How are thy servants blest, O Lord!
How sure is their defence!
Eternal wisdom is their guide,
Their help omnipotence.

2 In foreign realms, and lands remote,
Supported by thy care,
They pass unhurt through burning climes,
And breathe in tainted air.

3 Thy mercy sweetens every soil,
Makes every region please;
The hoary, frozen hills it warms,
And smooths the boisterous seas.

4 In midst of dangers, fears, and death,
Thy goodness I'll adore,