"Believe only"

Zeal extinguish'd to a sprak

Representative Text

1 Zeal extinguished to a spark;
Life is very, very low;
All my evidences dark,
And good works I’ve none to show.
Prayer, too, seems a load;
Ordinances tease or tire;
I can feel no love to God;
Hardly have a good desire.

2 Though thy fainting spirits droop,
Yet thy God is with thee still.
To believe in hope ’gainst hope,
And against thee all things feel;
Only to believe,
’Midst thy coldness, doubts, and death,
Canst thou not, poor soul, perceive
This is now thy work of faith?

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #853

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Author: J. Hart

Hart, Joseph, was born in London in 1712. His early life is involved in obscurity. His education was fairly good; and from the testimony of his brother-in-law, and successor in the ministry in Jewin Street, the Rev. John Hughes, "his civil calling was" for some time "that of a teacher of the learned languages." His early life, according to his own Experience which he prefaced to his Hymns, was a curious mixture of loose conduct, serious conviction of sin, and endeavours after amendment of life, and not until Whitsuntide, 1757, did he realize a permanent change, which was brought about mainly through his attending divine service at the Moravian Chapel, in Fetter Lane, London, and hearing a sermon on Rev. iii. 10. During the next two years ma… Go to person page >

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