Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OLNEY HYMNS: 55. LOVE CONSTRAINING TO OBEDIENCE, by WILLIAM COWPER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OLNEY HYMNS: 55. LOVE CONSTRAINING TO OBEDIENCE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: No strength of nature can suffice
Last Line: And duty into choice.
Subject(s): Faith; Obedience; Belief; Creed


No strength of Nature can suffice
To serve the Lord aright:
And what she has she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.

How long beneath the law I lay
In bondage and distress;
I toiled the precept to obey,
But toiled without success.

Then to abstain from outward sin
Was more than I could do;
Now, if I feel its power within,
I feel I hate it too.

Then all my servile works were done
A righteousness to raise;
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely chuse his ways.

"What shall I do," was then the word,
"That I may worthier grow?"
"What shall I render to the Lord?"
Is my inquiry now.

To see the law by Christ fulfilled,
And hear his pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice.





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