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The Contrite Heart. - Isaiah lvii.15.

By William Cowper

Topics: classic

The Lord will happiness divine     On contrite hearts bestow;     Then tell me, gracious God, is mine     A contrite heart or no?     I hear, but seem to hear in vain,     Insensible as steel;     If aught is felt, tis only pain     To find I cannot feel.     I sometimes think myself inclined     To love thee, if I could;     But often feel another mind,     Averse to all thats good.     My best desires are faint and few,     I fain would strive for more:     But when I cry, My strength renew,     Seem weaker than before.     Thy saints are comforted, I know,     And love thy house of prayer;     I therefore go where others go,     But find no comfort there.     O make this heart rejoice or ache;     Decide this doubt for me;     And if it be not broken, break,     And heal it if it be.

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"The Lord will happiness divine..."

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Author:William Cowper

"The Lord will happiness divine..." by William Cowper

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

William Cowper

About William Cowper

William Cowper (1731–1800) was an English poet and hymnodist whose work bridges the gap between the Augustan age and Romanticism. His poems "The Task" and "John Gilpin" were enormously popular, and his hymn "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" remains widely sung.

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