Christ My Song - 568
Yes, I will always love
(Madame Guyon/William Cowper/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
Yes, I will always love.
1. Yes, I will always love; and, as I ought,
tune to the praise of love my ceaseless voice;
preferring love too vast for human thought,
in spite of erring men, who cavil at my choice.
(PDF - Midi)
2. Why have I not a thousand thousand hearts,
Lord of my soul! that they might all be thine?
If thou approve – the zeal thy smile imparts,
how should it ever fail! can such a fire decline?
3. Love, pure and holy, is a deathless fire;
its object heavenly, it must ever blaze;
eternal love a God must needs inspire,
when once he wins the heart, and fits it for his praise.
4. Self-love dismissed – 'tis then we live indeed –
in her embrace, death, only death is found:
come then, one noble effort, and succeed;
cast off the chain of self with which thy soul is bound.
5. Oh! I would cry, that all the world might hear,
ye self-tormentors, love your God alone;
let his unequalled excellence be dear,
dear to your inmost souls, and make him all your own!
Madame Guyon, translated by William Cowper.
after: Philip Schaff, Christ in Song, 1870, 489
and after: Cowper's Poetical Works, 405, stanzas 6-10 (of 11).