This is the fast, which I will choose

Representative Text

1 This is the fast that I will choose,
The burdens to undo;
The hands of wickedness to loose,
And let the pris'ner go:

2 Let such as are opprest be freed,
Break ev'ry yoke in twain,
Gladly supply the brethren's need,
And thus allay their pain:

3 To hungry souls to deal thy bread,
Nor thrust them from thy door,
But in thine house a table spread,
For all the cast out poor:

4 To all the naked cov'ring give,
Their drooping hearts refresh;
Nor hide thyself, whilst thou dost live,
From those who're thine own flesh.

5 Attentive to the heav'nly word
We stand convicted deep,
That we ourselves, before the Lord,
This fast can never keep:

6 But up we look unto our head,
Jesus the fast hath kept;
And us in him thro' all he did,
The Father doth accept.

7 He kept the fast, which God did choose;
Our burdens did undo;
Our hands of wickedness did loose,
And let the pris'ners go:

8 From sin's oppression us he freed,
Brake ev'ry yoke in twain,
Gladly supply'd his brethren's need,
And sav'd us from hell's pain.

9 To us he deals the living bread,
Nor thrusts us from his door;
But to his house, and table spread,
He brings us cast out poor.

10 Cloth'd with the labours of his cross,
He did our hearts refresh;
Nor did he hide himself from us,
But calls us his own flesh.

11 Hail, Alpha and Omega, hail!
All hail, thou first and last!
O'er all our foes we shall prevail,
For thou hast kept the fast:

12 Complete in thee, our dearest Lord,
They works as ours are known:
We now encourag'd by thy word,
Conclude thy fast's our own.

Source: Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs: selected and original, designed for the use of the Church Universal in public and private devotion #CXX

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: James Relly

James Relly was born about 1722 at Jeffreston, Pembrokeshire, Wales, and died in 1778. He was converted to Christianity during the Great Awakening ushered in by George Whitefield. He worked under George Whitefield as a Calvinistic Methodist preacher and missionary. However, Whitefield and Relly separated ways over Relly's seemingly universalist teaching that all humanity was elect (i.e. saved) when Christ took the punishment for all sin when he died. He also departed from both the Calvinists and Methodists by taking the doctrine of Justification further, in teaching that believers no longer sin and the Law's sole purpose is to condemn humanity and point them to Christ. He was the mentor of John Murray, the founder of the Universalist Ch… Go to person page >

^ top