Unsettledness

Representative Text

1 Lord, what a riddle is my soul!
Alive when wounded, dead when whole!
Fondly I flee from pain, yet ease
Cannot content, nor pleasure please.

2 Thou hid’st thy face, my sins abound;
World, flesh, and Satan all surround;
Fain would I find my God, but fear
The means, perhaps, may prove severe.

3 [If thou the least displeasure show,
And bring my vileness to my view,
Timorous and weak, I shrink and say,
“Lord, keep thy chastening hand away.”

4 If reconciled I see thy face,
Thy matchless mercy, boundless grace,
O’ercome with bliss, I cry, “Remove
That killing sight, I die with love.”]

5 My dear Redeemer, purge this dross;
Teach me to hug and love the cross;
Teach me thy chastening to sustain,
Discern the love, and bear the pain.

6 Nor spare to make me clearly see
The sorrows thou hast felt for me;
If death must follow, I comply;
Let me be sick with love, and die.

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #304

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Author: J. Hart

Hart, Joseph, was born in London in 1712. His early life is involved in obscurity. His education was fairly good; and from the testimony of his brother-in-law, and successor in the ministry in Jewin Street, the Rev. John Hughes, "his civil calling was" for some time "that of a teacher of the learned languages." His early life, according to his own Experience which he prefaced to his Hymns, was a curious mixture of loose conduct, serious conviction of sin, and endeavours after amendment of life, and not until Whitsuntide, 1757, did he realize a permanent change, which was brought about mainly through his attending divine service at the Moravian Chapel, in Fetter Lane, London, and hearing a sermon on Rev. iii. 10. During the next two years ma… Go to person page >

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