618    148th     W. Gadsby
“I will lead them in paths … not known.” Isa. 42. 16

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.]

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.

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.