Poetry > Course of time

34
THE COURSE OF TIME.
Imagination, passion, and desire,
Most utterly depraved throughout, and ill,
In sight of Heaven, though less in sight of man ;
At enmity with God his Maker born,
And by his very life an heir of death :
That man, that every man was, further, most
Unable to redeem himself, or pay
One mite of his vast debt to God ; nay, more,
Was most reluctant and averse to be
Eedeemed, and sin’s most voluntary slave :
That Jesus, Son of God, of Mary born
In Bethlehem, and by Pilate crucified
On Calvary, for man, thus fallen and lost,
Died ; and, by death, life and salvation bought,
And perfect righteousness, for all who should
In His great name beheve : that He, the third
In the eternal Essence, to the prayer
Sincere should come, should come as soon as asked,
Proceeding from the Father and the Son,
To give faith and repentance, such as God
Accepts ; to open the intellectual eyes,
Blinded by sin ; to bend the stubborn will,
Perversely to the side of wrong inclined,
To God and His commandments just and good;
The wild rebellious passions to subdue,
And bring them back to harmony with heaven ;
To purify the conscience, and to lead
The mind into all truth, and to adorn
With every holy ornament of grace,
And sanctify the whole renewed soul,