No strength of Nature can suffice To serve the Lord aright: And what she has she misapplies, For want of clearer light. How long beneath the law I lay In bondage and distress; I toiled the precept to obey, But toiled without success. Then to abstain from outward sin Was more than I could do; Now, if I feel its power within, I feel I hate it too. Then all my servile works were done A righteousness to raise; Now, freely chosen in the Son, I freely chuse his ways. "What shall I do," was then the word, "That I may worthier grow?" "What shall I render to the Lord?" Is my inquiry now. To see the law by Christ fulfilled, And hear his pardoning voice, Changes a slave into a child, And duty into choice. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET: IN ABSENCE FROM BECCHINA by CECCO ANGIOLIERI DA SIENA THE LOVER'S MESSAGE; SONG by JOHN DRYDEN HIS GRANGE, OR PRIVATE WEALTH by ROBERT HERRICK CROSSING THE PLAINS by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 67 by ALFRED TENNYSON THE LORD OF THOULOUSE; A LEGEND OF LANGUEDOC by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM SONNET: MAN VERSUS ASCETIC. 2 by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON |