C. M. God is everywhere. PAUSE. In all my vast concerns with thee, In vain my soul would try To shun thy presence, Lord, or flee The notice of thine eye. Thy all-surrounding sight surveys My rising and my rest, My public walks, my private ways, And secrets of my breast. My thoughts lie open to the Lord Before they're formed within; And ere my lips pronounce the word He knows the sense I mean. O wondrous knowledge, deep and high! Where can a creature hide? Within thy circling arms I lie, Beset on every side. So let thy grace surround me still, And like a bulwark prove, To guard my soul from every ill, Secured by sovereign love. Lord, where shall guilty souls retire, Forgotten and unknown? In hell they meet thy dreadful fire, In heav'n thy glorious throne. Should I suppress my vital breath To 'scape the wrath divine, Thy voice would break the bars of death, And make the grave resign. If winged with beams of morning light I fly beyond the west, Thy hand, which must support my flight, Would soon betray my rest. If o'er my sins I think to draw The curtains of the night, Those flaming eyes that guard thy law Would turn the shades to light. The beams of noon, the midnight hour, Are both alike to thee O may I ne'er provoke that power From which I cannot flee. |