The Lord gave _
1. For what this day recalls to mind
My praise to God is due;
How many blessings he designed
To give, in giving you.
2. When hating, hateful and forlorn
In Afric’s wilds I strayed,
His hand secured my safe return,
But you, the means, was made.
3. How little, then, could be foreseen
My path in future life!
But he prepared each following scene
By making you my wife.
4. The happy day that joined our hands
(Sweet prelude to his grace)
More firm, in my remembrance, stands
Than if engraved in brass.
5. But, ah! my heart, by sin betrayed
(How painful is the thought)
Soon, of the gift, an idol made,
The Giver soon forgot!
6. How justly might some sudden turn
Have parted us again;
And left my guilty soul to mourn
In agony and pain!
7. But though we both, and chiefly I,
For good have rendered ill,
His mercy has been always nigh,
His hand preserves us still.
8. With mutual love, and peace, and health,
And friends, he has us blest;
And if not what the world calls wealth,
We have enough possessed.
9. From place to place, from year to year
The Lord has been our guide;
A sure resource in time of fear,
When all has failed beside.
10. Thus five and twenty times the sun
Has trod his annual path;
And we apace are posting on
To meet the hour of death!
11. Sure none a happier life have known
Than ours throughout has been;
But could we covet, now ‘tis gone,
To live it o’er again?
12. Like chequered cloth the warp with love
And comforts has been spread;
But cares and crosses interwove
Have furnished half the thread.
13. Yes! even we, who so much joy,
Such sweet endearments know,
Have found that something will annoy
And tarnish all below!
14. Yet every cross a mercy is,
A blessing every thorn,
That tells us, here is not our bliss,
We were for nobler born.
15. That I am hers, and she is mine,
Invites my feeble lays;
But Saviour, that we both are thine,
Demands my highest praise.
16. With thee, dear Lord, who rulest all
The wise appointment lies;
To which of us the lot must fall
To close the other’s eyes!
17. Then all our intercourse while here
(How happy and how kind!)
Will like a fleeting dream appear,
Which leaves no trace behind.
18. Prepare us every day we live,
For that important hour;
And when it shall at length arrive,
Support us with thy power.
19. Who first departs, may thy kind smile
Strengthen, with joy to go;
And the survivor reconcile
To stay a while below.
20. Then, may it seem of little weight,
Which of us goes before;
Secure that we shall surely meet
To part again no more.
21. O with what wonder, joy and praise
Our souls shall then review
The snares and mercies of the ways
We were conducted through!
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