Hos_13:14
Though first to be applied to the national resurrection of Israel, this passage has a grand outlook towards the resurrection of the dead. Believing in this promise, we hate our sins, and knowing that they are pardoned, we meet death with joy, expecting to rise from the grave in the glorious image of the Redeemer.
I knew thee when the world was waste,
And thou alone wast fair,
On thee my heart its fondness placed,
My soul reposed its care.
Can I forget the cloudy days
Of grief in which we met,
When in life’s lone and friendless ways
Thou didst not me forget.
Can I forget those words of love,
So tender and so true,
With which, when thou must needs reprove,
Thou didst so comfort too?
O never, never let me choose
Freedom from thy control;
O never, never let me lose
Thy sunshine from my soul.