Blessed Martha love and joy expressed

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Blessed Martha love and joy expressed

Author: John Newton
Published in 4 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Blessed Martha love and joy expressed,
To entertain her heavenly guest;
While Mary, ravished with her Lord,
Sat at his feet, and heard his word.

2 True love divine, in both the same,
Let each to glorify his name;
Each met her Lord with joyful heart,
"But Mary chose the better part."

3 While one prepared her earthly bread,
The other wanted to be fed;
One toiled with care to spread a feast,
The other leaned on Jesu's breast.

4 Both met the favor of their Lord,
His grace for each prepared a word;
While Mary drank full droughts of love,
Grace, careful Martha, did reprove.

5 Thus Christians with the world are vexed,
Oft are encumbered and perplexed;
Vain tribes so engross their thought,
The one thing needful is forgot.

6 Teach us, dear Lord, that part to choose,
Which through thy grace we ne'er shall lose;
Then could we call the world our own,
We'd leave it all to see thy throne.

The Hartford Selection of Hymns from the most approved authors, 1799

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Author: John Newton

John Newton (b. London, England, 1725; d. London, 1807) was born into a Christian home, but his godly mother died when he was seven, and he joined his father at sea when he was eleven. His licentious and tumultuous sailing life included a flogging for attempted desertion from the Royal Navy and captivity by a slave trader in West Africa. After his escape he himself became the captain of a slave ship. Several factors contributed to Newton's conversion: a near-drowning in 1748, the piety of his friend Mary Catlett, (whom he married in 1750), and his reading of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and, in association with William Wilberforce, eventually became an ardent abolitionist. After becoming a tide… Go to person page >

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