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Monday, October 02, 2006

Law and Grace

In a sermon on the subject of law and grace, Wayne Thompson, pastor of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Rusk, Texas, quoted this wonderful little poem:

"Do this and live!" the law demands,
But gives me neither feet nor hands.
But sweeter sounds the gospel brings,
It bids me fly, and gives me wings!


To my way of thinking, it really captures the contrast.

I have not yet found the proper attribution for it -- I've seen from John Bunyan in the 1600s to John Fischer in the 1970s -- and would be glad to know the author.

3 comments:

R. L. Vaughn said...

Thanks. That second one looks like the real McCoy. I had my attention called to the Fischer site. I'm not sure what they intend -- perhaps that the arrangement of words and music are by Fischer. Since I had seen a quotation of one of the variants of this stanza in a Charles Spurgeon sermon, I was pretty sure it wasn't written by John Fischer in 1975!

Anonymous said...

The original wording of this was John Bunyan :

Run, John, run
"The law commands
But gives me neither feet nor hands
Tis better news the Gospel brings
It bids me fly
It gives me wings"
He died in 1689, when Ralpoh Erskine was merely 5 years old however he would have certainly found this published in Bunyan's work on law and grace which was published in 1659.

R. L. Vaughn said...

Anonymous, Thanks for the information on the author of these words. I appreciate the help.