283    7s     John Newton
Breathing after Love to Christ. Matt. 22. 37

1 ’Tis a point I long to know,
  (Oft it causes anxious thought),
  Do I love the Lord, or no?
  Am I his, or am I not?

2 If I love, why am I thus?
  Why this dull and lifeless frame?
  Hardly, sure, can they be worse
  Who have never heard his name.

3 Could my heart so hard remain,
  Prayer a task and burden prove,
  Every trifle give me pain,
  If I knew a Saviour’s love?

4 [When I turn my eyes within,
  All is dark, and vain, and wild;
  Filled with unbelief and sin,
  Can I deem myself a child?

5 If I pray, or hear, or read,
  Sin is mixed with all I do;
  You that love the Lord indeed,
  Tell me, is it thus with you?

6 Yet I mourn my stubborn will
  Find my sin a grief and thrall;
  Should I grieve for what I feel,
  If I did not love at all?]

7 Could I joy his saints to meet,
  Choose the ways I once abhorred,
  Find at times the promise sweet,
  If I did not love the Lord?

8 Lord, decide the doubtful case;
  Thou who art thy people’s Sun,
  Shine upon thy work of grace,
  If it be indeed begun.

9 Let me love thee more and more,
  If I love at all, I pray;
  If I have not loved before,
  Help me to begin today.