Ebenezer.
1 The Lord, our salvation and light,
The Guide of our strength and our days,
Has brought us together tonight,
A new Ebenezer to raise:
The year we have now passed through,
His goodness with blessings has crowned;
Each morning his mercies were new;
Then let our thanksgivings abound.
2 Encompassed with dangers and snares,
Temptations, and fears, and complaints,
His ear he inclined to our prayers,
His hand opened wide to our wants:
We never besought him in vain;
When burden’d with sorrow or sin,
He helped us again and again,
Or where before now had we been?
3 His gospel, throughout the long year,
From sabbath to sabbath he gave;
How oft has he met with us here,
And shown himself mighty to save!
His candlestick has been removed
From churches once privileged thus;
But though we unworthy have proved,
It still is continued to us.
4 For so many mercies received,
Alas! what returns have we made?
His Spirit we often have grieved,
And evil for good have repaid:
How well it becomes us to cry,
“Oh! who is a God like to thee?
Who passest iniquities by,
And plungest them deep in the sea!”
- To Jesus, who sits on the throne,
Our best hallelujahs we bring;
To thee it is owing alone
That we are permitted to sing:
Assist us, we pray, to lament
The sins of the year that is past;
And grant that the next may be spent
Far more to thy praise than the last.