54. NEW YEAR's HYMN. Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.--Phil. iv. 6. 1. IN songs of praise before thy throne, In all our trouble thou hast prov❜d 2. The year is past, with all its cares, a. And now another year's begun, Help us, O Lord! our race to run 4. Our times, dear Lord, are in thine hand; And all events at thy command; Our rising griefs thou canst control, 5. Preserve us, Lord! throughout this year, In entering upon the threshold of another year may the Lord the Spirit help me, and all my fellow pilgrims, to contemplate the kindness and love of our dear Lord, by whose grace, mercy, and faithfulness, we have been preserved, and brought through many cares and perplexities through the past year. Brethren! God is faithful-in all our temptations he hath made a way for us to escape; yes, where reason could see no way, God has made a way. What may be our trials, during this year, God only knows; but here is our security, as our day so shall our strength be. If our troubles are to abound, so shall our consolations. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, to day, and for ever. Let us "praise him for all that is past, and trust him for all that's to come." 55. ELECTION. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. ---1 Peter i. 2. 1. ELECTION! sweet truth !- By many abhorr'd; Who poison our youth, And war with the Lord; With horrid contention They pass through their days, And rack their invention, The creature to please. 2." Election," they cry, “Discouraging thought! "If man can do naught;" 3. My soul, pass them by, And turn to the Lord; Thy God cannot lie, Nor alter his word: Ordain'd to salvation, In Jesus our Head, Is his holy nation, 4. Hast thou chosen me, And taught me to pray?- The eternal election of the Church in Jesus her Head, by the sovereign love of Jehovah, is one of the clearest truths made known in the Book of God. Should my reader shudder at the doctrine, I would refer him to the 17th chapter of John's Gospel; and, while he reads, let him pray, (if he be able,) to that God who alone can subdue the pride of the human heart, and make plain his own sublime truth to a guilty sinner. And if God should be pleased to teach him the doctrine of election, he will find it a most precious truth! bearing up his troubled soul amidst the seas of spiritual trouble, which, (if a believer,) may be his portion. The knowledge of our election is one of our high privileges, and which is known by effectual calling. 56. LOT'S PRESERVATION. Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.---Gen. xix. 17. 1. A RIGHTEOUS Lot in Sodom dwelt, 2. "Haste," said the Angel, "haste away, "Up to the mountain go, "In all the plain make no delay, 3. Sodom's a type of this vile world, 4. Until the wheat is gather'd in Zion's preserv'd from death and sin, 5. 'Tis sov'reign love, in ev'ry age, That brings salvation forth: M |