Satan, your subtle foe,
Already has his measures laid
Your soul to overthrow.
II
“He wants to sift you all as wheat,
And thinks his vict’ry sure;
But I his malice will defeat—
My pray’r shall faith secure.”
III
Believers, tremble and rejoice,
Your help and danger view;
This warning has to you a voice,
This promise speaks to you.
IV
Satan beholds with jealous eye
Your privilege and joy;
He’s always watchful, always nigh,
To tear and to destroy.
V
But Jesus lives to intercede,
That faith may still prevail;
He will support in time of need,
And Satan’s art shall fail.
VI
Yet let us not the warning slight,
But watchful still be found;
Though faith cannot be slain in fight,
It may receive a wound.
VII
While Satan watches dare we sleep?
We must our guard maintain;
But, Lord, do thou the city keep,
Or else we watch in vain.
109
Father, Forgive Them
By Newton
Luke 23:34.
I
“Father, forgive,” the Saviour said,
“They know not what they do:”
His heart was moved when thus he pray’d
For me, my friends, and you.
II
He saw that as the Jews abused
And crucified his flesh,
So he by us would be refused,
And crucified afresh.
III
Through love of sin we long were prone
To act as Satan bid;
But now with grief and shame we own
We knew not what we did.
IV
We knew not the desert of sin,
Nor whom we thus defied;
Nor where our guilty souls had been
If Jesus had not died.
V
We knew not what a law we broke,
How holy, just, and pure!
Nor what a God we durst provoke,
But thought ourselves secure.
VI
But Jesus all our guilt foresaw,
And shed his precious blood,
To satisfy the holy law,
And make our peace with God.
VII
My sin, dear Saviour, made thee bleed,
Yet didst thou pray for me!
I knew not what I did, indeed,
When ignorant of thee.
110
The Two Malefactors
By Newton
Luke 23:39–43.
I
Sovereign grace has power alone
To subdue a heart of stone;
And the moment grace is felt,
Then the hardest heart will melt.
II
When our Lord was crucified
Two transgressors with him died!
One, with vile blaspheming tongue,
Scoff’d at Jesus as he hung.
III
Thus he spent his wicked breath
In the very jaws of death;
Perish’d, as too many do,
With the Saviour in his view.
IV
But the other, touch’d with grace,
Saw the danger of his case—
Faith received to own the Lord,
Whom the scribes and priests abhorr’d.
V
“Lord,” he pray’d, “remember me
When in glory thou shalt be!”
“Soon with me,” the Lord replies,
“Thou shalt rest in paradise.”
VI
This was wondrous grace indeed,
Grace vouchsafed in time of need!
Sinners, trust in Jesus’ name,
You shall find him still the same.
VII
But beware of unbelief,
Think upon the harden’d thief;
If the gospel you disdain,
Christ to you will die in vain.
111
The Woman of Samaria
By Newton
John 4:28.
I
Jesus, to what didst thou submit,
To save thy dear-bought flock from hell!
Like a poor trav’ler see him sit
Athirst and weary by the well.
II
The woman who for water came
(What great events on small depend!)
Then learn’d the glory of his name,
The well of life, the sinner’s Friend!
III
Taught from her birth to hate the Jews,
And fill’d with party pride, at first
Her zeal induced her to refuse
Water, to quench the Saviour’s thirst.
IV
But soon she knew the gift of God,
And Jesus, whom she scorn’d before,
Unask’d, that drink on her bestow’d
Which whoso tastes shall thirst no more.
V
His words her prejudice removed,
Her sin she felt, relief she found;
She saw and heard, believed and loved,
And ran to tell her neighbours round.
VI
O come, this wondrous man behold,
The promised Saviour! this is he
Whom ancient prophecies foretold,
Born from our guilt to set us free,
VII
Like her, in ignorance content,
I worshipp’d long I knew not what;
Like her, on other things intent,
I found him when I sought him not.
VIII
He told me all that e’er I did,
And told me all was pardon’d too;
And now, like her, as he has bid,
I live to point him out to you.
112
The Pool of Bethesda.14
By Newton
John 5:2–4.
I
Beside the gospel pool,
Appointed for the poor,
From year to year my helpless soul
Has waited for a cure.
II
How often have I seen
The healing waters move,
And others, round me, stepping in,
Their efficacy prove!
III
But my complaints remain:
I feel the very same;
As full of guilt and fear and pain
As when at first I came.
IV
O would the Lord appear
My malady to heal;
He knows how long I’ve languish’d here,
And what distress I feel.
V
How often have I thought,
Why should I longer lie?
Surely the mercy I have sought
Is not for such as I?
VI
But whether can I go?
There is no other pool
Where streams of sovereign virtue flow
To make a sinner whole.
VII
Here, then, from day to day,
I’ll wait and hope and try;
Can Jesus hear a sinner pray,
Yet suffer him to die!
VIII
No: he is full of grace;
He never will permit
A soul that fain would see his face
To perish at his feet.
113
Another
By Newton
I
Here at Bethesda’s pool, the poor,
The wither’d, halt, and blind,
With waiting hearts expect a cure,
And free admittance find.
II
Here streams of wondrous virtue flow,
To heal the sin-sick soul—
To wash the filthy white as snow,
And make the wounded whole.
III
The dumb break forth in songs of praise,
The blind their sight receive,
The cripple runs in wisdom’s ways,
The dead revive and live.
IV
Restrain’d to no one case
