O SOUL, bring forth thy sacrifice of praise!
O lips, ope wide my joyous hymn to raise
Toward highest heaven, where, seated on His throne,
My Lord accepteth worship from His own.
Bells of my heart, ring out in joyous peal
For Christ, my Saviour, ‘neath unarmed heel,
Hath trodden into dust mine enemy;
And from my chafing chains hath set me free.
Sing out my soul; yet cease awhile to tell
Of God’s vast wrath which in its fullness fell
On His own Son; of judgment’s roaring flood
Checked and hurled back from man by Jesus’ blood.
Erstwhile what gloom, what misery were mine;
Fettered I walked, and fettered did recline
Where Satan bade me: yet I thought him God,
And deemed my feet in paths that saints had trod.
My life was fogged with doubts; in doubt loomed death;
My sun was mist-enclosed, until a breath
Breathed of God’s lips, blew mists and doubts away,
And I first saw the radiance of God’s day.
And now I have the assurance of my Lord,
Proclaimed to all in His undying word,
I doubt no more; for Christ would have me Show
That, now assured, I tell of things I know.
And this I know: my Saviour’s boundless grace,
Which gives the vilest vagabond a place
That angels covet; and I know still more—
How, Jordan passed, I dwell on yonder shore.
Sing out, my soul! and tell of Jesus’ love
Which wide has oped the gates of heaven-trove;
And bid man think, ere yet his sands be run,
How Christ for man once fought alone and won.
L.L.
“THE love of Christ is a love which is above all our wretchednesses, and which is not repelled nor chilled by any of these wretchednesses.”