In vain we lavish out our lives

Isaac Watts · 1707

Catalog grade guidance: 6–8 — Isaac Watts hymn; editorial grade guidance.

43 content lines · 260 words · Est. recitation about 2 min 35 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg #13341.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

Hymn 1:9.
The promises of the covenant of grace, Isa. 55. 1 2.
Zech. 13. 1. Mich. 7. 19. Ezek. 36. 25 &c.

1 In vain we lavish out our lives
To gather empty wind,
The choicest blessings earth can yield
Will starve a hungry mind.

2 Come and the Lord shall feed our souls
With more substantial meat,
With such as saints in glory love,
With such as angels eat.

3 Our God will every want supply,
And fill our hearts with peace;
He gives by covenant and by oath
The riches of his grace.

4 Come, and he'll cleanse our spotted souls,
And wash away our stains,
In the dear fountain that his Son
Pour'd from his dying veins.

5 [Our guilt shall vanish all away
Tho' black as hell before;
Our sins shall sink beneath the sea,
And shall be found no more.

6 And lest pollution should o'erspread
Our inward powers again,
His Spirit shall bedew our souls
Like purifying rain.]

7 Our heart, that flinty stubborn thing,
That terrors cannot move,
That fears no threat'nings of his wrath,
Shall be dissolv'd by love;

8 Or he can take the flint away
That would not be refin'd,
And from the treasures of his grace
Bestow a softer mind.

9 There shall his sacred Spirit dwell,
And deep engrave his law,
And every motion of our souls
To swift obedience draw.

10 Thus will he pour salvation down,
And we shall render praise,
We the dear people of his love,
And he our God of grace.