Love Constrained to Obedience

 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 toll'd the precept to obey,
But toil'd 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 choose 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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