’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?

 

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!

 

Could my heart so hard remain,

Prayer a task and burden prove;

Every trifle give me pain,

If I knew a Savior’s love?

 

When I turn my eyes within,

All is dark, and vain, and wild;

Filled with unbelief and sin,

Can I deem myself a child?

 

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?

 

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?

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?

Lord, decide the doubtful case!

Thou who art Thy people’s sun;

Shine upon Thy work of grace,

If it be indeed begun.

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.

John Newton. England (1725-1807)