In vain we lavish out our lives

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General information

In vain we lavish out our lives is a hymn by Isaac Watts, published as Hymn 9 in Book 1 of his Hymns and Spiritual Songs.

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Text and translations

English.png English text

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

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

Our God will ev'ry want supply,
And fill our hearts with peace;
He gives by cov'nant and by oath
The riches of his grace.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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