Since First Thy Word
(Air — Nicholas Freeman.)
Since first Thy Word awaked my heart,
Like new life dawning o’er me,
Where’er I turn mine eyes, Thou art,
All light and love before me.
Naught else I feel, or hear or see—
All bonds of earth I sever—
Thee, O God, and only Thee
I live for, now and ever.
Like him whose fetters dropt away
When light shone o’er his prison,1
My spirit, touched by Mercy’s ray,
Hath from her chains arisen.
And shall a soul Thou bidst be free,
Return to bondage?—never!
Thee, O God, and only Thee
I live for, now and ever.
Notes
1 “And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison…and his chains fell off from his hands.”—Acts, xii. 7.