University of Virginia Library

HYMN 74. (S. M.) Repentance from a Sense of divine Goodness; or, a Complaint of Ingratitude.

I

Is this the kind return,
And these the thanks we owe?
Thus to abuse eternal love
Whence all our blessings flow?

II

To what a stubborn frame
Has sin reduc'd our mind!
What strange rebellious wretches we,
And God as strangely kind!

III

On us he bids the sun
Shed his reviving rays,
For us the skies their circles run
To lengthen out our days.

IV

The brutes obey their God,
And bow their necks to men,
But we more base, more brutish things
Reject his easy reign.

V

Turn, turn us, mighty God,
And mould our souls afresh,
Break, sovereign grace, these hearts of stone,
And give us hearts of flesh.

VI

Let old ingratitude
Provoke our weeping eyes,
And hourly as new mercies fall
Let hourly thanks arise.