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.