Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON THE DISINTERESTED LOVE OF GOD, by JOHN BYROM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON THE DISINTERESTED LOVE OF GOD, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The love of god with genuine ray
Last Line: Some feeling proof into his heart.
Subject(s): Hearts; Love


THE love of God with genuine ray
Inflam'd the breast of good Cambray;
And banish'd from the prelate's mind
All thoughts of interested kind:
He saw, and writers of his class,
(Of too neglected worth, alas!)
Disinterested Love to be
The Gospel's very A B C.

When our redeeming Lord began
To practice it Himself, as Man;
And, for the joy then set before
His loving view, such evils bore;
Endur'd the cross, despis'd the shame—
Had He an interested aim?
Surely the least examination
Shews, that the joy was our salvation.

For us He suffer'd, to make known
The love that seeketh not its own;
Suffer'd, what nothing but so pure
A love could possibly endure:
No less a sacrifice than this
Could bring poor sinners back to bliss;
Or execute the saving plan
Of reuniting God and man.

This love was Abram's shield and guard;
Was his exceeding great reward;
This love the Patriarchal eye,
And that of Moses, could descry;
In this disinterested sense,
They sought reward or recompense,
City or country, heav'n above,
The seat of purity and love.

This the high calling, this the prize,
The mark of Paul's so steady eyes;
For, with the self-forgetting Paul,
Pure love of God in Christ was all:
The text of the beloved John
Has all, that words can say, in one;
For GOD IS LOVE—compendious whole
Of all the blessings of a soul.

What helps to this a soul may want,
Pure love is ready still to grant;
But with a view to wean it still
From selfish, mercenary will:
Of all reward, all punishment,
This is the end, in God's intent,
To form, in offsprings of his own,
The bliss of loving His alone.

Sole rule of all affection due
Both to ourselves, and others too;
Meaning of ev'ry scripture text,
By interested love perplex'd,
Promise or precept, gospel call
Or legal love, fulfils them all;
From base arising up to spire,
Superior both to fear and hire.

Love of disinterested kind,
The man, who thinks it too refin'd,
May, by ambiguous language, still
Persist in metaphysic skill;
Even the justly fam'd Cambray,
In such a case, could only pray,
That love itself would only dart
Some feeling proof into his heart.





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