Manchurian Books

The service was lengthened by occasional prayers, adapted
to the state of the kingdom, and closed with an hymn, except at those
times when the centinel or watch indicated there was danger of
interruption.
One fine evening of the summer of 1649 they were thus employed, and
roused to uncommon fervour by a most pathetic discourse, to which the
following hymn, sung by the congregation, was in its purport analogous:
Oh Thou, to whose paternal ear
Affliction never vainly cried!
Whom in prosperity we fear,
On whom in sorrow we confide;
We mourning exiles humbly crave
Thy light to guide--thy power to save.
Proscribed from consecrated ground,
Forbid thy sacred courts to tread,
We know, where contrite hearts are found,
Thy cleansing grace is largely shed.
The church may wander in the wild,
But God still feeds his pilgrim child.
Our canopy the vaulted skies,
Our unction the refreshing dew;
The circling rocks that round us rise,
Conceal us from th' oppressor's view;
Still shall their solemn echoes bear
To thy high courts our praise and prayer.


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