For the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
I will rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.
Isa. lxi. 10.
“Loosed are the bands thy soul which chain’d,
My Father’s love and grace regain’d;”
Such are the words by which to-day
My Saviour chased my grief away.
’Tis even so: His death and pain
God’s favour have restored again;
For me my ‘highest good’ is won,
The work of grace is fully done.
Here righteousness and peace abound,
The festal robe I here have found,
Which, covering all my guilt and sin,
Has made my soul at peace within.
This Christ hath wrought, my blessed Lord,
Who feeds me at his gracious board,
And gladness fills my heart and mind,
To think that pardon here I find.
Into my Father’s presence dread,
No longer now I fear to tread;
His wrath appeased through Christ, his Son,
He bids me come before his throne.
He now regards me as his child,
Since I through Christ am reconciled;
Washed in the blood from Jesu’s side,
To me heaven’s gate is open’d wide.
Thy Holy Spirit, Christ, impart,
Work true repentance in my heart,
That e’en from sin’s remotest brink
With deep abhorrence I may shrink;
That so I may not fall again,
By sinning, into Satan’s chain,
Nor throw my Father’s grace away,
By going any more astray.
So shall I die at peace with Thee,
From sin and sinner’s doom set free,
And at the Lamb’s own marriage-feast,
In heaven become a constant guest.