This page has been validated.
208
SHIRLEY.

rung from the chapel, and out all the assembly broke again.

"What a mercy is this!
What a heaven of bliss!
How unspeakably happy am I!
Gathered into the fold,
With thy people enroll'd,
With thy people to live and to die!

"Oh! the goodness of God
In employing a clod
His tribute of glory to raise;
His standard to bear,
And with triumph declare
His unspeakable riches of grace!

"Oh, the fathomless love,
That has deigned to approve
And prosper the work of my hands;
With my pastoral crook,
I went over the brook,
And behold I am spread into bands!

"Who, I ask in amaze,
Hath begotten me these?
And inquire from what quarter they came;
My full heart it replies,
They are born from the skies,
And gives glory to God and the Lamb!"

The stanza which followed this, after another and longer interregnum of shouts, yells, ejaculations, frantic cries, agonized groans, seemed to cap the climax of noise and zeal.