3.
“Whoso committeth sin is the servant of sin.”
But more and more those iron bonds increase,
When, setting Thy commandments all at nought,
In the imaginings of our own thought
We follow our own will, nor seek release.
Then if upbraidings of Thy Spirit cease,
'Tis that those fetters grow into the soul,
Part of ourselves, infect our being whole;
Those chains become ourselves—we are at peace.
Then by those bonds which Thou for us didst wear,
And by the blows which Thou for us didst bear—
When as some blood-stain'd, night-caught criminal
Within that house of bondage set in thrall,
Before that Pharaoh our Redemption stood,—
Save me from that Egyptian servitude.
