Hymn 100. Faith in a Redeemer’s Sufferings

Lord, when my thoughts delighted rove

Amid the wonders of thy love,

Sweet hope revives my drooping heart,

And bids intruding fears depart.

But while thy sufferings I survey,                                                         

And faith enjoys a heavenly ray,

These dear memorials of thy pain,

Present anew the dreadful scene.

I hear thy groans with deep surprize,

And view thy wounds with weeping eyes,                                           

Each bleeding wound, each dying groan,

With anguish fraught, and pains unknown.

For mortal crimes a sacrifice,

The Lord of life, and Saviour dies:

What love, what mercy, how divine! –                                                

Jesus, and can I call thee mine? –

Repentant sorrow fills my heart,

But mingling joy allays the smart,

O may my future life declare

The sorrow and the joy sincere.                                                            

Be all my heart, and all my days

Devoted to my Saviour’s praise;

And let my glad obedience prove

How much I owe, how much I love.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 1, p. 153; Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, no. 100 (all stanzas); Poems, 1780, vol. 1, pp. 178-79; MS, Steele Collection, STE 3/1/1 no. 100, Angus Library, Regents Park College,  Oxford.