Christ My Song - 299
The Lord receives his highest praise - A Living and a Dead Faith (William Cowper/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
A Living and a Dead Faith.
1. The Lord receives his highest praise
from humble minds and hearts sincere;
while all the loud professor says
offends the righteous Judge's ear. PDF - Midi
2. To walk as children of the day,
to mark the precepts' holy light,
to wage the warfare, watch, and pray,
show who are pleasing in his sight.
3. Not words alone it cost the Lord,
to purchase pardon for his own;
nor will a soul, by grace restored,
return the Saviour words alone.
4. With golden bells, the priestly vest,
and rich pomegranates bordered round,
the need of holiness expressed,
and called for fruit, as well as sound.
5. Easy, indeed, it were to reach
a mansion in the courts above,
if swelling words and fluent speech
might serve, instead of faith and love.
6. But none shall gain the blissful place,
or God's unclouded glory see,
who talks of free and sovereign grace,
unless that grace has made him free!
4,2: Exodus 28,33.
William Cowper, The Complete Poetical Works of William Cowper, 1853(?), 265-266.