899. L. M. Doddridge. The Closing Year.

1 God of our life! thy constant care
With blessings crowns each opening year:
These lives so frail thy love prolongs;
Be this the burden of our songs.

2 How many precious souls are fled
To the vast regions of the dead,
Since, from this day, the changing sun
Through his last yearly course has run!

3 We yet survive, but who can say,
Or through the year, or month, or day,
We shall retain this vital breath,
Secure from all the shafts of death?

4 We hold our lives from thee alone,
On earth, or in the worlds unknown;
To thee our spirits we resign,
Make them and own them all as thine.

5 Great Source of wisdom, teach my heart
To know the price of every hour,
That time may bear me on to joys
Beyond its measure and its power.