Faith and Repentance

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Let us ask the important question

Author: J. Hart
Tune: [Let us ask the important question] (51311)
Published in 21 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Let us ask the important question,
(Brethren, be not too secure),
What it is to be a Christian,
How we may our hearts assure.
Vain is all our best devotion,
If on false foundations built;
True religion’s more than notion;
Something must be known and felt.

2 [’Tis to trust our Well-belovèd
In his blood has washed us clean;
’Tis to hope our guilt’s removèd,
Though we feel it rise within;
To believe that all is finished,
Though so much remains to endure;
Find the dangers undiminished,
Yet to hold deliverance sure.]

3 [’Tis to credit contradictions;
Talk with him one never sees;
Cry and groan beneath afflictions,
Yet to dread the thoughts of ease.
’Tis to feel the fight against us,
Yet the victory hope to gain;
To believe that Christ has cleansed us,
Though the leprosy remain.]

4 [’Tis to hear the Holy Spirit
Prompting us to secret prayer;
To rejoice in Jesus’ merit,
Yet continual sorrow bear;
To receive a full remission
Of our sins for evermore,
Yet to sigh with sore contrition,
Begging mercy every hour.]

5 To be steadfast in believing,
Yet to tremble, fear and quake;
Every moment be receiving
Strength, and yet be always weak;
To be fighting, fleeing, turning;
Ever sinking, yet to swim;
To converse with Jesus, mourning
For ourselves or else for him.

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #237a

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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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First Line:	Let us ask the important question
Title:	Faith and Repentance
Author:	J. Hart
Meter:	8.7.8.7 D
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

Luke 9:23
(hymns)

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Notes

Let us ask the important question. J. Hart. [Passiontide.] Published in his Hymns, &c, 1759, No. 56, in two parts, the second being "Great High Priest, we view Thee stooping," and headed "Faith and Repentance." Pt. i., in 5 stanzas of 8 lines, asks and answers the important question, "What is it to be a Christian?" and Pt. ii., in 3 stanzas of 8 lines, is a Prayer based upon the answer given in Pt. i. Both parts are in common use, but the second ("Great High Priest, &c"), which is by far the finer of the two, is also by far the more popular. It is in several collections in Great Britain and America.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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