James Montgomery

Self-discoveries.

Lord, when we search the human heart,

We find a fallen world within;

There is no health in any part,

Sin reigns throughout, and death by sin.

Large provinces are pagan still,

Where other lords dominion share;

Idols of mind, affection, will,

The Power of darkness triumphs there.

Here, the false prophet's wild domains,

Where Lust, and Cruelty, and Hate,

With baleful passions fire the veins,

And seal the conscience up in fate.

'Midst all, the stubborn, stiff-necked Jew,

Blind, like his kindred, prone to roam,

Denies the Saviour whom he slew,

Mammon his God, and earth his home.

The smallest portion of the whole

Some beams of heavenly truth pervade;

Slowly the day-spring o'er the soul

Breaks through the fogs of nature's shade.

I know a bosom, which within

Contains the world's sad counterpart;

'Tis here, -- the reign of death and sin;

O God! evangelize my heart!

Then will I strive through earth's whole round,

Thy name, Thy knowledge to diffuse;

And send the Gospel's joyful sound

To Pagans, Infidels, and Jews.

From Christian hearts divinely changed,

Were the world's likeness thus to part,

That world, from God no more estranged,

Would soon be like the Christian's heart.