WONDERFUL POEM BY JOHN NEWTON!

‘Tis a Point I Long to Know

by John Newton

Tis a point I long to know, (Oft it causes anxious thought),
Do I love the Lord, or no? Am I His, or am I not?

If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull, this lifeless frame?
Hardly, sure, can they be worse, who have never heard His name?

Could my heart so hard remain, prayer a task and burden prove,
Every trifle give me pain, if I knew a Savior’s love?

When I turn my eyes within, all is dark and vain, and wild;
Filled with unbelief and sin, can I deem myself a child?

If I pray, or hear, or read, sin is mixed with all I do;
You who love the Lord indeed, tell me, is it so with you?

Yet I mourn my stubborn will, find my sin a grief and thrall;
Should I grieve for what I feel, if I did not love at all?

Could I joy His saints to meet, choose the ways I once abhorred.
Find at time the promise sweet, if I did not love the Lord?

Lord, decide the doubtful case; Thou, who art Thy people’s Sun,
Shine upon Thy work of grace, if it be indeed begun.

Let me love Thee more and more, if I love at all, I pray;
If I have not loved before, help me begin today.