Humiliation and Praise

Representative Text

1 When the wounded spirit hears
The voice of Jesu's blood;
How the message stops the tears
Which else in vain had flowed:
Pardon, grace, and peace proclaimed,
And the sinner called a child;
Then the stubborn heart is tamed;
Renewed and reconciled.

2 Oh! 'twas grace indeed, to spare
And save a wretch like me!
Men or angels could not bear
What I have offered thee:
Were thy bolts at their command,
Hell, ere now, had been my place;
Thou alone should silent stand,
And wait to show thy grace.

3 If in one created mind
The tenderness and love
Of thy saints on earth were joined,
With all the hosts above;
Still that love were weak and poor,
If compared, my Lord, with thine;
Far too scanty to endure
A heart so file as mine.

4 Wondrous mercy I have found,
But Ah! how faint my praise!
Must I be a cumber-ground,
Unfruitful all my days!
Do I in thy garden grow,
Yet produce thee only leaves?
Lord, forbid it should be so!
The thought my spirit grieves.

5 Heavy charges Satan brings,
To fill me with distress;
Let me hide beneath thy wings,
And plead thy righteousness:
Lord to thee for help I call,
'Tis thy promise bids me come;
Tell him thou hast paid for all,
And thou shalt strike him dumb.

Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the use of Christians, 1803

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

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 >

^ top