Afflictions do not come alone

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Afflictions do not come alone

Author: John Newton
Tune: ABRIDGE (Smith)
Published in 2 hymnals

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Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1. Afflictions do not come alone,
A voice attends the rod;
By both He to His saints is known,
A Father and a God!

2. Let not My children slight the stroke
I for chastisement send;
Nor faint beneath My kind rebuke,
For still I am their friend.

3. The wicked I perhaps may leave
Awhile, and not reprove;
But all the children I receive
I scourge, because I love.

4. If therefore you were left without
This needful discipline;
You might, with cause, admit a doubt,
If you, indeed, were Mine.

5. Shall earthly parents then expect
Their children to submit?
And wilt not you, when I correct,
Be humbled at My feet?

6. To please themselves they oft chastise,
And put their sons to pain;
But you are precious in My eyes,
And shall not smart in vain.

7. I see your hearts, at present, filled
With grief, and deep distress;
But soon these bitter seeds shall yield
The fruits of righteousness.

8. Break through the clouds, dear Lord, and shine!
Let us perceive Thee nigh!
And to each mourning child of Thine
These gracious words apply.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #38

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Author: John Newton

John Newton (b. London, England, 1725; d. London, 1807) was born into a Christian home, but his godly mother died when he was seven, and he joined his father at sea when he was eleven. His licentious and tumultuous sailing life included a flogging for attempted desertion from the Royal Navy and captivity by a slave trader in West Africa. After his escape he himself became the captain of a slave ship. Several factors contributed to Newton's conversion: a near-drowning in 1748, the piety of his friend Mary Catlett, (whom he married in 1750), and his reading of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and, in association with William Wilberforce, eventually became an ardent abolitionist. After becoming a tide… Go to person page >

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