I Love the Volumes of Thy Word

I love the vol­umes of Thy Word;

What light and joy those leaves af­ford

To souls be­night­ed and dis­tressed!

Thy pre­cepts guide my doubt­ful way

Thy fear for­bids my feet to stray

Thy pro­mise leads my heart to rest.

From the dis­cov­er­ies of Thy law

The per­fect rules of life I draw;

These are my stu­dy and de­light:

Not ho­ney so in­vites the taste

Nor gold that hath the fur­nace past

Appears so pleas­ing to the sight.

Thy threat­en­ings wake my slum­ber­ing eyes

And warn me where my dang­er lies;

But ’tis Thy bless­èd Gos­pel

Lord

That makes my guil­ty con­science clean

Converts my soul

sub­dues my sin

And gives a free

but large re­ward.

Who knows the er­rors of his thoughts?

My God

for­give my sec­ret faults

And from pre­sump­tu­ous sins re­strain:

Accept my poor at­tempts of praise

That I have read Thy book of grace

And book of na­ture not in vain.