The path that Christians tread

Verse 1

The path that Christians tread To reason’s eye is strange; Through regions of the dead, They frequently must range; Ten thousand monstrous beasts of prey Beset the soul by night and day.

Verse 2

We must not learn God’s truth As school-boys learn their task; Such knowledge is not proof Against delusion’s blast. An empty knowledge bloats with air, But dies when dreadful storms appear.

Verse 3

Christians oft pray for faith; To trace God’s beauties more; To triumph over death; And Jesus’ name adore. God hears and answers their desire; But ’tis through scenes of floods and fire.

Verse 4

Sin, armed with all the spleen Of enmity to God, Oft rises up within, And scorns the Saviour’s blood; A world of filth, too base to name, Beset and plunge the soul in shame.

Verse 5

To pray, he thinks too bold; While he in silence moans, His bones keep waxing old, By reason of his groans; And by such means, though strange to tell, The Lord will teach him Jesus well.

Verse 6

When self and nature die, And all our beauty’s gone, The Saviour brings us nigh, To trust in him alone; ’Tis then we trust his righteousness, And rest alone on sovereign grace.

Verse 7

Thus Jesus wears the crown; We gladly trace the power That brings all nature down, And leads us to adore Jesus, the Lord our Righteousness, Who saves in every deep distress.