In Vain We Lavish Out Our Lives

¹In vain we lavish out our lives
To gather empty wind,
The choicest blessings earth can yield
Will starve a hungry mind.

²Come and the Lord shall feed our souls
With more substantial meat,
With such as saints in glory love,
With such as angels eat.

³Our God will every want supply,
And fill our hearts with peace;
He gives by covenant and by oath
The riches of his grace.

⁴Come, and he'll cleanse our spotted souls,
And wash away our stains,
In the dear fountain that his Son
Pour'd from his dying veins.

⁵Our guilt shall vanish all away
Tho' black as hell before;
Our sins shall sink beneath the sea,
And shall be found no more.

⁶And lest pollution should o'erspread
Our inward powers again,
His Spirit shall bedew our souls
Like purifying rain.

⁷Our heart, that flinty stubborn thing,
That terrors cannot move,
That fears no threat'nings of his wrath,
Shall be dissolv'd by love;

⁸Or he can take the flint away
That would not be refin'd,
And from the treasures of his grace
Bestow a softer mind.

⁹There shall his sacred Spirit dwell,
And deep engrave his law,
And every motion of our souls
To swift obedience draw.

¹⁰Thus will he pour salvation down,
And we shall render praise,
We the dear people of his love,
And he our God of grace.