I came across this interesting hymn – Hymn No. 127, in common meter, on pages 133-135, in A Collection of Hymns, intended for the use of the citizens of Zion by Thomas Reed. I researched and found that it is one of Joseph Hart’s hymns. Not surprising, as he emphasizes the need of experience along with the “form of words.”
For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. 1 Cor. iv. 20.
Can never save a soul;
The Holy Ghost must give the wound;
And make the wounded whole.
2. Though God’s election is a truth,
Small comfort there I see,
Till I am told by God’s own mouth
That he has chosen me.
3. Sinners, I read, are justified
By faith in Jesu’s blood;
But when to me that bloods applied,
’Tis then it does me good.
4. To perseverance I agree;
The thing to me is clear,
Because the Lord has promis’d me,
That I shall persevere.
5. Imputed righteousness I own,
A doctrine most divine,
For Jesus to my heart makes known
That all his merit’s mine.
6. That Christ is God I can avouch,
And for his people cares,
Since I have pray’d to him as such,
And he has heard my prayers.
7. That sinners black as hell, by Christ
Are sav’d, I know full well
For I his mercy have not miss’d,
And I am black as hell.
8. Thus Christians glorify the Lord;
His spirit joins with ours,
In bearing witness to his word,
With all its saving pow’rs.
According to John Julian in Dictionary of Hymnology, “‘Kingdom of God in Power’ [was] First published in his Hymns Composed on Various Subjects, 1759, No. 90, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines and based on i. Cor. iv. 20. ‘For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.’ In 1780, with slight alterations and the omission of stanzas vi. and vii. and the transposition of iv. and v. it was given in the Lady H. Collection No. 95, and from thence has passed into a limited number of ultra-Calvinistic hymnals.”
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