Sense of Depravity.
1 Great King of glory and of grace,
We own with humble shame,
How vile is our degenerate race,
And our first father's name.
2 We live estranged, afar from God,
And love the distance well;
With haste we run the dangerous road
That leads to death and hell.
3 And can such rebels be restored?
Such natures made divine?
Let sinners see thy glory, Lord,
And feel this power of thine.
4 We raise our Father's name on high,
Who his own Spirit sends
To bring rebellious strangers nigh.
And turn his foes to friends.
Shapen in Iniquity.
1 Lord, I am vile,-conceived in sin,
And born unholy and unclean;
Sprung from the man whose guilty fall
Corrupts the race, and taints us all.
2 Soon as we draw our infant breath,
The seeds of sin grow up for death;
Thy law demands a perfect heart;
But we 're defiled in every part.
3 O Lord, I fall before thy face;
My only refuge is thy grace:
No outward forms can make me clean;
The leprosy lies deep within.
4 Jesus, my God, thy blood alone
Hath power sufficient to atone :
Thy blood can make me white as snow;
No human power could cleanse me so.
5 While guilt disturbs and breaks my peace,
Nor flesh nor soul hath rest or ease:
Lord, let me hear thy pard'ning voice,
And make my broken bones rejoice.
1 Ah! how shall fallen man
Be just before his God?
If he contend in righteousness,
We fall beneath his rod.
2 If he our ways should mark
With strict, inquiring eyes,
Could we for one of thousand faults
A just excuse devise?
3 The mountains, in thy wrath,
Their ancient seats forsake;
The trembling earth deserts her place;
Her rooted pillars shake.
4 Ah! how shall guilty man
Contend with such a God?
None, none can meet him, and escape,
But through the Saviour's blood.
Man's State by Nature.
1 How heavy is the night
That hangs upon our eyes,
Till Christ, with his reviving light,
O'er our dark souls arise.
2 Our guilty spirits dread
To meet the wrath of Heaven;
But, in his righteousness arrayed,
We see our sins forgiven.
3 Unholy and impure
Are all our thoughts and ways:
His hands infected nature cure
With sanctifying grace.
4 The powers of hell agree
To hold our souls in vain;
He sets the sons of bondage free,
And breaks the cruel chain.
5 Lord, we adore thy ways
To bring us near to God,
Thy sovereign power, thy healing grace,
And thine atoning blood.
The Sinner alive without the Law.
1 Lord, how secure my conscience was,
And felt no inward dread!
I was alive without the law,
And thought my sins were dead.
2 My hopes of heaven were firm and bright;
But since the precept came
With a convincing power and light,
I find how vile I am.
3 My guilt appeared but small before,
Till I with terror saw
How perfect, holy, just, and pure,
Is thine eternal law.
4 Then felt my soul the heavy load;
My sins revived again :
I had provoked a dreadful God,
And all my hopes were slain.
5 My God, I cry with every breath
For some kind power to save;
Oh, break the yoke of sin and death,
And thus redeem the slave.
Self-righteousness renounced.
1 Vain are the hopes the sons of men
On their own works have built;
Their hearts by nature all unclean,
And all their actions guilt.
2 Let Jew and Gentile silent bow,
Without a murmuring word;
Let all the race of man confess
Their guilt before the Lord.
3 In vain we ask God's righteous law
To justify us now;
Since to convince and to condemn
Is all the law can do.
4 Jesus, how glorious is thy grace!
When in thy name we trust,
Our faith receives a righteousness
That makes the sinner just.
Lost without Christ.
1 Buried in shadows of the night
We lie, till Christ restores the light,
Till he descends to heal the blind,
And chase the darkness of the mind.
2 Our guilty souls are drowned in tears,
Till his atoning blood appears;
Then we awake from deep distress,
And sing the Lord our Righteousness.
3 Jesus beholds where Satan reigns
And binds his slaves in heavy chains;
He sets the prisoners free, and breaks
The iron bondage from our necks.
4 Poor, helpless worms in thee possess
Grace, wisdom, power, and righteousness;
Thou art our mighty All, and we
Give our whole selves, O Lord, to thee.
Necessity of Regeneration.
1 Awaked by Sinai's awful sound,
My soul in bonds of guilt I found,
And knew not where to go;
Eternal truth did loud proclaim,
"The sinner must be born again,
Or sink in endless woe."
2 Amazed I stood, but could not tell
Which way to shun the gates of hell,
For death and hell drew near;
I strove, indeed, but strove in vain :
"The sinner must be born again"
Still sounded in my ear.
3 When to the law I trembling fled,
It poured its curses on my head;
I no relief could find:
This fearful truth increased my pain;
"The sinner must be born again
O'erwhelmed my tortured mind.
4 But while I thus in anguish lay,
Jesus of Naz'reth passed that way,
And felt his pity move:
The sinner, by his justice slain,
Now by his grace is born again,
And sings redeeming love.
1 Why will ye waste on trifling cares
That life which God's compassion spares;
While, in the various range of thought,
The one thing needful is forgot?
|