The words
Stanza 1. Strange and mysterious is my life,What opposites I feel within!A stable peace, a constant strife,The rule of grace, the pow’r of sin:Too often I am captive led,Yet daily triumph in my Head.
Stanza 2. I prize the privilege of prayer,But o! what backwardness to pray!Though on the LORD I cast my care,I feel its burden every day:I seek his will in all I do,Yet find my own is working too.
Stanza 3. I call the promises my own,And prize them more than mines of gold;Yet though their sweetness I have known,They leave me unimpressed and coldOne hour upon the truth I feed,The next I know not what I read.
Stanza 4. I love the holy day of rest,When Jesus meets his gathered saints;Sweet day, of all the week the best!For its return my spirit pants:Yet often, through my unbelief,It proves a day of guilt and grief.
Stanza 5. While on my Savior I rely,I know my foes shall loose their aim;And therefore dare their pow’r defy,Assured of conquest through his name:But soon my confidence is slain,And all my fears return again.
Stanza 6. Thus different pow’rs within me strive,And grace, and sin, by turns prevail;I grieve, rejoice, decline, revive,And vict’ry hangs in doubtful scale:But JESUS has his promise passed,That grace shall overcome at last.
Olney Hymns (1779), Book 1, Hymn 130. John Newton. Public domain. CCEL transcription with modernized spelling. www.praylock.com/olney-hymns/1-130
