Dear fountain of delight unknown, LV. LOVE CONSTRAINING TO OBEDIENCE No strength of nature can suffice How long beneath the law I lay But toiled without success. Then to abstain from outward sin Now, if I feel its power within, I feel I hate it too. Then all my servile works were done Now, freely chosen in the Son, I freely choose his ways. "What shall I do," was then the word, To see the law by Christ fulfilled, And hear his pardoning voice, LVI. THE HEART HEALED AND CHANGED BY MERCY SIN enslaved me many years, "Where," said I, in deep distress, And make the Lord my friend?” Friends and ministers said much But my blindness still was such, Thus afraid to trust his grace, By a simple word he spoke, "Thy sins are done away." LVII. HATRED OF SIN HOLY Lord God! I love thy truth, Nor dare thy least commandment slight; Yet, pierced by sin, the serpent's tooth, I mourn the anguish of the bite. But, though the poison lurks within, Had I a throne above the rest, Where angels and archangels dwell, One sin, unslain, within my breast, Would make that heaven as dark as hell. The prisoner sent to breathe fresh air, Would mourn were he condemned to wear But, oh! no foe invades the bliss, When glory crowns the Christian's head; One view of Jesus as he is Will strike all sin for ever dead. LVIII. THE NEW Convert THE new-born child of Gospel grace, Like some fair tree when summer's nigh, Beneath Emmanuel's shining face Lifts up his blooming branch on high. No fears he feels, he sees no foes, Nor has he learnt to whom he owes But sin soon darts its cruel sting, When Gideon armed his numerous host, Thus will he bring our spirits down, And draw our ebbing comforts low, That, saved by grace, but not our own, We may not claim the praise we owe. LIX. TRUE AND FALSE COMFORTS O God, whose favourable eye Not such as hypocrites suppose, Intoxicating joys are theirs, Who, while they boast their light Lulled in a soft and fatal sleep, Were they indeed the Saviour's sheep, Be mine the comforts that reclaim 'Tis joy enough, my All in All, LX. A LIVING AND A DEAD FAITH THE Lord receives his highest praise To walk as children of the day, Not words alone it cost the Lord With golden bells the priestly vest And rich pomegranates bordered round The need of holiness expressed, And called for fruit as well as sound. Easy indeed it were to reach A mansion in the courts above, But none shall gain the blissful place, LXI. ABUSE OF THE GOSPEL Too many, Lord, abuse thy grace And, while they boast they see thy face, Thy book displays a gracious light That can the blind restore; The pardon such presume upon Was it for this, ye lawless tribe, Ah, Lord, we know thy chosen few But these, the wretched husks they chew The liberty our hearts implore Is not to live in sin; But still to wait at Wisdom's door, LXII. THE NARROW WAY WHAT thousands never knew the road! What thousands hate it when 'tis known! None but the chosen tribes of God Will seek or choose it for their own. |