REFLECTIONS

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross-A Hymn

“When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

To Christ, Who won for sinners grace
By bitter grief and anguish sore,
Be praise from all the ransomed race
Forever and forevermore.”

-Isaac Watts  English Hymnwriter, Theologian and Logician  1674-1748

REFLECTIONS

A Puritan’s Prayer

“THE INFINITE AND THE FINITE

Thou Great I Am,

Fill my mind with elevation and grandeur at the thought of a Being

  with whom one day is as a thousand years,

  and a thousand years as one day,

A mighty God who, amidst the lapse of worlds,

  and the revolutions of empires,

  feels no variableness,

  but is glorious in immortality.

May I rejoice that, while men die, the Lord lives;

  that, while all creatures are broken reeds,

  empty cisterns,

  fading flowers,

  withering grass,

  He is the rock of ages, the fountain of living waters.

Turn my heart from vanity,

  from dissatisfactions,

  from uncertainties of the present state,

  to an eternal interest in Christ.

Let me remember that life is short and unforeseen,

  and is only an opportunity for usefulness;

Give me a holy avarice to redeem the time,

  to awake at every call to charity and piety,

  so that I may feed the hungry,

    clothe the naked,

    instruct the ignorant,

    reclaim the vicious,

    forgive the offender,

    diffuse the gospel,

    show neighborly love to all.

Let me live a life of self-distrust,

  dependence on Thyself,

  mortification,

  crucifixion,

  prayer.”

-From, The Valley of Vision, edited by Arthur Bennett, (The Banner of Truth Trust; 1975); page 104.