“WE WALK BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT.”
(2 Cor. v. 7.)
Why should a pilgrim grope within,
And judge by what he feels?
A loathsome stench of death and sin
No consolation yields.
Corruptions, base and foul as hell,
May vex and tease the soul;
But Jesus’ blood its rage can quell,
And make the conscience whole.
I have no life, no light, no love,
No truth nor righteousness,
That God, my Father, can approve,
Or justice can caress.
But what I have in Christ my Head,
And grace on me bestows;
My life with Christ in God is hid,
And he’ll redress my woes.
In this dear Christ I all things have;
Why should I yield to fear?
All that a living soul can crave,
Is richly treasured here.
’Tis treasured here to be bestowed
On guilty, wretched worms;
Here all the honors of my God,
Shine in their brightest forms.
O what a friend is Christ to me?
How matchless is his grace!
He sets my soul from bondage free,
And I his beauties trace.
In him I stand completely just;
His heart is my abode;
Though in myself, at best, but dust,
In him I’ve power with God.
Great wonders hath his love display’d,
To wretches, guilty;
Why, O my soul, art thou dismay’d?
Thy Lord is ever nigh.
Stretch all thy powers abroad and sing
The wonders of his grace;
Jehovah is thy God and King,
Thy strength and righteousness.
GADSBY.
