Wisdom Ascribe, and Might and Praise

Wisdom as­cribe

and might and praise

To God

who length­ens out our days

Who spares us yet an­oth­er year

And makes us see His good­ness here:

O may we all the time re­deem

And hence­forth live and die to Him.

How oft­en

when His arm was bared

Hath He our sin­ful Is­ra­el spared!

Let me alone

His mer­cy cried

And turned the venge­ful stroke aside;

Indulged an­oth­er kind re­prieve

And strange­ly suf­fered us to live.

Laid to the root with con­scious awe

But now the threat­en­ing axe we saw

We saw when Je­sus stepped be­tween

To part the pun­ish­ment and sin

He pleaded for the blood-bought race

And God vouch­safed a long­er space!

Still in the doubt­ful bal­ance weighed

We trem­bled

while the rem­nant prayed:

The Fa­ther heard his Spir­it groan

And an­swered mild

It is My son!

He let the pray­er of faith pre­vail

And mer­cy turned the ho­ver­ing scale.

Merciful God

how shall we raise

Our hearts to yield Thee all Thy praise?

Our hearts shall beat for Thee alone:

Our lives shall make Thy good­ness known;

Our souls and bo­dies shall be Thine

A liv­ing sac­ri­fice divine.

I

and my house

will serve the Lord

Led by the Spir­it and the Word;

We plight our faith

as­sem­bled here

To serve our God the en­su­ing year;

And vow

when time shall be no more

Through all eter­ni­ty to adore.