William Cowper (Уильям Купер)

Olney Hymn 54. Love Constrained to Obedience

    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 toll'd the precept to obey,
        But toil'd 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 choose 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. 

1. Pairing Time Anticipated
2. An Ode, on Reading Mr. Richardson's History of Sir Charles Grandison
3. The Jackdaw
4. See Where the Thames, the Purest Stream
5. Olney Hymn 42. Self-Acquaintance

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