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?
« PreviousContinue » |