By A Collection of Hymns

      8s & 6s.
      1 EXCEPT the Lord conduct the plan,
      The best concerted schemes are vain,
      And never can succeed;
      We spend our wretched strength for nought:
      But if our works in thee be wrought,
      They shall be blest indeed.

      2 Lord, if thou didst thyself inspire
      Our souls with this intense desire
      Thy goodness to proclaim,
      Thy glory if we now intend,
      O let our deed begin and end
      Complete in Jesu's name!

      3 In Jesu's name, behold, we meet,
      Far from an evil world retreat,
      And all its frantic ways;
      One only thing resolved to know,
      And square our useful lives below
      By reason and by grace.

      4 Not in the tombs we pine to dwell,
      Not in the dark monastic cell,
      By vows and grates confined;
      Freely to all ourselves we give,
      Constrained by Jesu's love to live
      The servants of mankind.

      5 Now, Jesus, now thy love impart,
      To govern each devoted heart,
      And fit us for thy will:
      Deep founded in the truth of grace,
      Build up thy rising church, and place
      The city on the hill.

      6 O let our faith and love abound!
      O let our lives to all around
      With purest lustre shine!
      That all around our works may see,
      And give the glory, Lord, to thee,
      The heavenly light divine.