Christian Classics
‹ Olney Hymns

John Newton & William Cowper · 120 of 356

119. ’Tis a point I long to know

Hymn 119

’Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought; Do I love the LORD, or no? Am I his, or am I not?

If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly, sure, can they be worse, Who have never heard his name!

Could my heart so hard remain, Prayer a task and burden prove; Every trifle give me pain, If I knew a Savior’s love?

When I turn my eyes within, All is dark, and vain, and wild; Filled with unbelief and sin, Can I deem myself a child?

If I pray, or hear, or read, Sin is mixed with all I do; You that love the LORD indeed, Tell me, Is it thus with you?

Yet I mourn my stubborn will, Find my sin, a grief, and thrall; Should I grieve for what I feel, If I did not love at all?

Could I joy his to meet, Choose the ways I once abhorred, Find, at times, the promise sweet, If I did not love the LORD?

Lord decide the doubtful case! Thou who art thy people’s sun; Shine upon thy work of , If it be indeed begun.

Let me love thee more and more, If I love at all, I pray; If I have not loved before, Help me to begin today.