January 2019 Hymn of the Month
The Church celebrates The Epiphany, the revelation that the salvation of Jesus Christ is extended not to Israel only but also to the Gentiles, such that all who willingly submit to the Holy Spirit may receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Our new Hymn of the Month is a hymn of praise to the Holy Spirit, he who in compassion and mysterious wisdom causes faith to grow in the hearts of Jews and Gentiles alike. Our new Hymn of the Month is How Helpless Guilty Nature Lies.
How Helpless Guilty Nature Lies
by Anne Steele, 1760
How helpless guilty nature lies, Unconscious of its load!
The heart, unchanged, can never rise, To happiness and God.
Can aught beneath a power divine, The stubborn will subdue?
'Tis Thine, Eternal Spirit, Thine, To form the heart anew.
'Tis Thine the passions to recall, And upwards bid them rise;
And make the scales of error fall, From reason's darken'd eyes.
To chase the shades of death away, And bid the sinner live!
A beam of heaven, vital ray, 'Tis Thine alone to give.
Oh change these wretched hearts of ours, And give them life divine!
Then shall our passions and our powers, Almighty Lord, be Thine.
Oh change these wretched hearts of ours, And give them life divine!
Then shall our passions and our powers, Almighty Lord, be Thine.
