Praying for Fruitfulness

Representative Text

1 Lord, if with thee part I bear;
If I through thy word am clean;
In thy mercy if I share;
If thy blood has purged my sin;
To my needy soul impart
Thy good Spirit from above,
To enrich my barren heart
With humility and love.

2 Lord, my heart, a desert vast,
Thy reviving hand requires;
Sin has laid my vineyard waste,
Overgrown with weeds and briars.
Thou canst make this desert bloom;
Breathe, O breathe, celestial Dove,
Till it blow with rich perfume
Of humility and love.

3 Vanquish in me lust and pride;
All my stubbornness subdue;
Smile me into fruit, or chide,
If no milder means will do.
Ah! compassionate my case;
Let the poor thy pity move;
Give me of thy boundless grace,
Give humility and love.

4 [Why should one that bears thy name,
Why should thy adopted child,
Be in rags, exposed to shame,
Like a savage, fierce and wild?
With thy children I would sit,
And not like an alien rove;
Clothe my soul and make it fit,
With humility and love.]

5 [Greatest sinners, greatly spared,
Love much, and themselves abase;
Mine’s a paradox too hard –
Rich of mercy, poor of grace;
Me thou hast forgiven much;
(This my sins too plainly prove).
Give me what thou givest such –
Much humility and love.]

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #874

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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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