Good Works

Representative Text

1 Vain man, to boast forbear,
The knowledge in thy head;
The sacred Scriptures this declare:
“Faith without works is dead.”

2 When Christ the Judge shall come
To render each his due,
He’ll deal thy deeds their righteous doom,
And set thy works in view.

3 Food to the hungry give;
Give to the thirsty drink;
To follow Christ is to believe;
Dead faith is but to think.

4 The man that loves the Lord
Will mind whate’er he bid;
Will pay regard to all his word,
And do as Jesus did.

5 [The dead professor counts
Good works as legal ties;
His faith to action seldom mounts;
On doctrine he relies.

6 But words engender strife;
Behold the gospel plan:
Trust in the Lord alone for life,
And do what good you can.]

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #852

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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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