The Twenty-Sixth Chapter of Isaiah, Part 3

God of all power, and truth, and grace,
Thou hast increased the holy seed,
Thou hast increased the chosen race,
The souls from sin for ever freed.

Thou in Thy saints art glorified,
Thou hast in them Thine image shown;
Shepherdless souls they wander'd wide,
Till call'd and perfected in One.

All we like sheep have gone astray,
To earth's remotest bounds removed,
Till Jesus show'd Himself the Way,
And kindly chasten'd whom He loved.

To Thee we in our trouble turn'd,
Constraint Thy chastisements to bear,
We then our sin and folly mourn'd,
And pour'd out all our soul in prayer.

As women, when their time draws nigh,
Cry out in sore distress, and pain,
So have we travail'd, in Thine eye,
And struggled to be born again.

In anguish, agony, and grief,
For years our labouring souls have been,
Nor could we bring ourselves relief,
Nor could we save ourselves from sin.

Our toil and strife avail'd us not,
Abortive proved our hope, and vain;
For we have no deliverance wrought,
For yet we were not born again.

The world did not before us fall,
We wanted still the victory,
The mighty faith that conquers all,
And makes the soul for ever free.

But they who, sunk in self-despair,
Death's sentence in themselves receive,
The quickening voice Divine shall hear,
And dead with Christ, with Christ shall live.

The Spirit that raised Him from the dead,
My mortal body shall inspire,
Shall raise us all with Christ our Head,
And hallow and baptize with fire.

Awake and sing, ye souls that dwell
Indignant in the shade of death,
Our Lord, who burst the gates of hell,
Shall bear you from the gulf beneath.

As herbs revived by vernal dew,
Spring from the earth, and flourish fair,
Ye all shall rise with verdure new,
And fruit unto perfection bear.

The hour shall come, the gospel hour,
When all that wait, His power shall prove,
His resurrection's glorious power,
And live the life of faith and love.

They from the death of sin shall rise,
Preventing here the general doom,
When Christ the Lord shall bow the skies,
And all mankind to judgment come.

The earth shall then cast out its dead,
While all who perish'd unforgiven,
Horribly lift their guilty head,
And rise, to be shut out from heaven.

Come, little flock, (My people now,
My Israel, if thy heart be clean,)
Enter into thy chamber thou,
Exclude the world, the hell of sin.

Betake thee to the secret place,
Safe in My tabernacle rest,
O hide thee for a little space,
Be shelter'd in thy Saviour's breast.

Rest, till the storm is all o'erpast,
For lo! the Lord from heaven shall come.
Judgment to execute at last,
And seal the guilty sinner's doom.

The sea shall then its dead restore,
The earth shall then disclose her blood,
Shelter their carcases no more,
Or screen them from an angry God.

Dragg'd from their graves, they then shall call
On rocks their quicken'd dust to' entomb,
And bid the burning mountains fall,
To hide them from the hell to come.

The wrath is come, the curse takes place,
The slaves of sin receive their hire,
And punish'd from My glorious face,
They sink into eternal fire.
II. ISAIAH XXVII. i—6, &c.