In Vain We Lavish Out Our Lives

In vain we lav­ish out our lives

To ga­ther emp­ty wind;

The choic­est bless­ings earth can yield

Will starve a hun­gry mind.

Come

and the Lord shall feed our souls

With more sub­stan­tial meat;

With such as saints in glo­ry love

With such as an­gels eat.

Our God will ev­ery want sup­ply

And fill our hearts with peace;

He gives by co­ve­nant and by oath

The rich­es of His grace.

Come

and He’ll cleanse our spot­ted souls

And wash away our stains

In the dear fount­ain that His Son

Poured from His dy­ing veins.

Our guilt shall van­ish all away

Tho’ black as hell be­fore;

Our sins shall sink be­neath the sea

And shall be found no more.

And lest pol­lu­tion should o’er­spread

Our in­ward pow­ers again

His Spir­it shall be­dew our souls

Like pu­ri­fy­ing rain.

Our heart

that flin­ty stub­born thing

That ter­rors can­not move

That fears no threat­en­ings of His wrath

Shall be dis­solved by love.

Or He can take the flint away

That would not be re­fined

And from the trea­sures of His grace

Bestow a soft­er mind.

There shall His sac­red Spir­it dwell

And deep en­grave His law

And ev­ery mo­tion of our souls

To swift obe­di­ence draw.

Thus will He pour sal­va­tion down

And we shall rend­er praise;

We the dear peo­ple of His love

And He our God of grace.