Poem by William Cowper

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. Olney Hymn 55. The Heart Healed and Changed by Mercy
2. Olney Hymn 4. Jehovah-Nissi. The Lord My Banner
3. An Ode, on Reading Mr. Richardson's History of Sir Charles Grandison
4. Olney Hymn 17. The House of Prayer
5. Olney Hymn 13. The Covenant

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