Sunday, November 9, 2008

Hymn for today...


Not What My Hands Have Done
By Horatius Bonar

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.


2 comments:

Marcian said...

The Lord was pleased to use this dead saint's works to calm and assuage my guilty fears when He first uncovered my sin to my own eyes. It was Bonar who taught me the gospel of grace, not my own pastor at the time. He is an encouragement to remain faithful to the Truth, as a sower scatters seeds, so that upon whoever's ears they fall some might be saved.

Br'er Shaygetz said...

I've been meaning to post more hymns...so I shamelessly glombed this one from your site.

The old hymns have such authority and power---borne in trial most of them---I couldn't imagine facing the lions with some of the tawdry jingles found today.

Blessings to you and yours, sister.