Hymn 261. Cold Affections

         Sure I must love the Saviour’s name –

         Or is the Heaven-born passion dead,

         Extinguish’d the celestial flame,

         And all my joys for ever fled?

         At the sweet mention of his love,                                                          

         How should the sacred ardour rise!

         And every thought, transported, move

         In grateful joy, and glad surprize!

         Jesus demands this heart of mine,

         Demands my wish, my joy, my care;                                                                

         But ah!  how dead to things divine,

         How cold my best affections are!

         What death-like lethargy detains

         My captive powers with fatal art,

         And spread its unrelenting chains                                                        

         Heavy and cold, around my heart!

         ’Tis Sin, alas!  with dreadful power

         Divides my Saviour from my sight;

         O for one happy, shining hour

         Of sacred freedom, sweet delight!                                                        

         See, dearest Lord, my wretched state,

         And thy almighty power employ;

         To thee I seek, on thee I wait,

         For life, and liberty, and joy.

         O let thy love shine forth, and raise                                                                 

         My captive powers from sin and death;

         And fill my heart and life with praise,

         And tune my last expiring breath.

         Then bear me to the blissful seats

         Of perfect freedom, life and light,                                                        

         Where thy redeem’d assembly meets,

         To love and praise with full delight.

         There shall my thoughts transported trace,

         And all my soul for ever prove,

         The boundless riches of thy grace,                                                       

         The endless wonders of thy love.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 1, pp. 114-15; Collection of Hymns Adapted to Public Worship, no. 261 (all stanzas); Poems, 1780, vol. 1, pp. 120-22; MS, Steele Collection, STE 3/1/1 no. 66, Angus Library, Regents Park College,  Oxford.