With all pollutions stained, Thy hallowed courts I trod, Thy name and temple I profaned, And dared to call thee God!
3 Nigh with my lips I drew,
My lips were all unclean;
Thee with my heart I never knew,
My heart was full of sin;
Far from the living Lord,
As far as hell from heaven,
Thy purity I still abhorred,
Nor looked to be forgiven.
4 My nature I obeyed,
My own desires pursued ;
And still a den of thieves I made
The hallowed house of God.
The worship he approves
To him I would not pay;
My selfish ends and creature-loves
Had stole my heart away.
5 A goodly, formal saint
I long appeared in sight,
By self and Satan taught to paint
My tomb, my nature, white.
The Pharisee within
Still undisturbed remained,
The strong man, armed with guilt of sin,
Safe in his palace reigned.
6 But 0! the jealous God
In my behalf came down ;
Jesus himself the stronger showed,
And claimed me for his own:
My spirit he alarmed,
And brought into distress;
He shook and bound the strong man armed
In his self-righteousness.
7 Faded my virtuous show,
My form without the power;
The sin-convincing Spirit blew,
And blasted every flower:
My mouth was stopped, and shame
Covered my guilty face;
I fell on the atoning Lamb,
And I was saved by grace.
HE men who slight thy faithful word,
In their own lies confide,
These are the temple of the Lord,
And heathens all beside!
2 The temple of the Lord are these,
The only church and true,
Who live in pomp, and wealth, and ease,
And Jesus never knew.
3 The temple of the Lord-they pull
Thy living temples down,
And cast out every gracious soul
That trembles at thy frown:
4 O wouldst thou, Lord, reveal their sins,
And turn their joy to grief,
The world, the Christian world, convince
Of damning unbelief!
5 The formalists confound, convert,
And to thy people join;
And break, and fill the broken heart
With confidence divine!
DESCRIBING INWARD RELIGION.
UTHOR of faith, eternal Word,
Whose Spirit breathes the active flame:
Faith, like its finisher and Lord,
To-day as yesterday the same:
2 To thee our humble hearts aspire, And ask the gift unspeakable; Increase in us the kindled fire,
In us the work of faith fulfil.
3 By faith we know thee strong to save; (Save us, a present Saviour thou!) Whate'er we hope, by faith we have, Future and past subsisting now.
4 To him that in thy name believes
Eternal life with thee is given;
Into himself he all receives,
Pardon, and holiness, and heaven.
5 The things unknown to feeble sense,
Unseen by reason's glimmering ray,
With strong, commanding evidence,
Their heavenly origin display.
6 Faith lends its realizing light,
The clouds disperse, the shadows fly;
The Invisible appears in sight,
And God is seen by mortal eye.
OW can a sinner know
His sins on earth forgiven?
How can my gracious Saviour show
My name inscribed in heaven?
What we have felt and seen,
With confidence we tell;
And publish to the sons of men
The signs infallible.
2 We who in Christ believe
That he for us hath died,
We all his unknown peace receive,
And feel his blood applied;
Exults our rising soul,
Disburdened of her load,
And swells unutterably full
Of glory and of God.
3 His love, surpassing far
The love of all beneath,
We find within our hearts, and dare
The pointless darts of death:
Stronger than death and hell
The mystic power we prove;
conquerors of the world, we dwell
In heaven, who dwell in love.
4 We by his Spirit prove
And know the things of God,
The things which freely of his love
He hath on us bestowed;
His Spirit to us he gave,
And dwells in us, we know;
The witness in ourselves we have,
And all its fruits we show.
5 The meek and lowly heart That in our Saviour was, To us his Spirit doth impart,
And signs us with his cross:
Our nature's turned, our mind
Transformed in all its powers;
And both the witnesses are joined,
The Spirit of God with ours.
6 Whate'er our pardoning Lord
Commands, we gladly do;
And guided by his sacred word,
We all his steps pursue:
His glory our design,
We live our God to please;
And rise with filial fear divine,
To perfect holiness.
1 THOU great mysterious God unknown, Whose love hath gently Ted me on, Even from my infant days,
Mine inmost soul expose to view,
And tell me, if I ever knew
Thy justifying grace.
2 If I have only known thy fear,
And followed with a heart sincere
Thy drawings from above,
Now, now the further grace bestow,
And let my sprinkled conscience know
Thy sweet forgiving love.
3 Short of thy love I would not stop,
A stranger to the gospel hope,
The sense of sin forgiven;
I would not, Lord, my soul deceive,
Without the inward witness live,
That antepast of heaven.
4 If now the witness were in me,
Would he not testify of thee
In Jesus reconciled?
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