Various the objects man desires

Representative Text

1 Various the Objects Man desires,
Whilst he to Happiness aspires;
Each longing Sense, would be possest
Of what most suits his childish Taste;
There seeking lasting Peace, and solid Joy,
And heav'nly Sweets, which ne'er will fade nor cloy.

2 Of thee, my sov'reign Lord and King,
My longing soul desires one Thing:
I in thine House would ever dwell,
Thy Goodness, O my God, to tell;
There to behold, with Joy, thy beauteous Face,
Inquiring at thy Oracles of Grace.

3 This have I long desir'd of thee,
They Beauties in thine House to see;
One Day, my God, is better there,
Than are a thousand Days elsewhere:
For O! thy holy Temple is the Place
Where thou unveil'st thy Beauty and thy Grace.

4 Thy Body, Lamb, once bath'd in Blood,
That Temple is, that House of God;
Where all the church in Mystery,
As living Stones are built in thee;
To which by Faith, we all repair, and tell
How God is pleas'd in it, in us to dwell.

5 Thy Ministers, as Flames of Fire,
Attending with intense Desire;
Thy Servants round thy Table set,
Spread with divine, with heav'nly Meat:
Apparel'd in the spirit, and the Word,
Here dwell for-ever in thy Temple, Lord.

6 Brighter than all, O Morning-Star!
Thou shin'st with Rays resplendent here;
Brighter than Solomon of old
E'er shone in wisdom, Pow'r, or Gold:
Extasy'd more thy Saints than Sheba's Queen,
When those the Beauties of thine House are seen.

Source: Christian Hymns, Poems, and Spiritual Songs: sacred to the praise of God our Saviour #I.LXXII

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