I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners.—Matt. ix. 13
“Life was once to me like summer,
With its glitter and its smile;
I, as thoughtless as the insect,
Trifled through the little while.
All was buoyant life within me,
All was jubilant around;
Need of Jesus then I felt not,
So I sought Him not, nor found.
“But the summer soon was ended,
And the gloomy winter came;
All my blooming joys were withered
Into griefs of every name.
Still, I hoped the change of season
Would bring summer round again;
But, instead, the gloom grew blacker—
And I sought my Saviour then.
“Yes, I sought with cries and weeping,
But no answer was returned;
Echo flung me back my ‘plainings,
‘Twas as if my cry was spurned.
Sore distressed at the silence,
I with fervour did entreat:
Still the ear could catch no answer,
Save the heart’s distracted beat.
“Well I knew ’twas but through Jesus
That the sinner comes to God;
But with what we come to Jesus?
Ah! ’twas here I missed the road:
I was bringing Him obedience,
When I should have brought but sin,
So my knocking, though half-frantic,
No admittance thus could win.
“Then I studied to know better
What already well I knew;
And the good things that I practised,
Better still I strove to do:
Yet the deeper grew the darkness,
And the silence grew more dread
So I owned my case was hopeless,
And my soul among the dead.
“Then I cast me self-despairing,
On the Saviour’s boundless grace;
Not a hope had I of blessing,
If He met not such a case.
And I felt that need so urgent
Scarce on earth could ever be:
So I begged for one so ruined
Mercy instant, mercy free.
“Then at once the peace of pardon
Did my sinking soul restore,
And the love sprung up spontaneous,
Which I could not force before.
When I took the place of sinner,
And at mercy’s footstool lay,
Jesus took His place as Saviour,
And at once put sin away.
“Ah! ’tis ruinous to cover
Filthy sores with rags more foul:
Let us strip them bare before Him,
That His grace may make us whole.
He delights in showing mercy
To a soul that owns its sin;
But the soul that thinks of earning,
Not a smile shall ever win.”