________________________________________________
Title: On The First Text Heard Spiritually
Author: John Castillo [
More Titles by Castillo]
(“My heart is fixed.”—Psalm lvii. 7.)
By grace divine I sing, “My heart is fix’d!”
(Fix’d on the corner stone in Zion laid:)
He spoke, I wept, and heard the blessed text,
And all my wavering, wandering thoughts were stay’d.
He to me spoke, as with an angel’s voice,
And all my fears at once like lightning fled!
O how my troubled soul did then rejoice!
I was as one new risen from the dead!
Thrice happy bard who wrote such words as these,
So applicable to a case like mine;
Such music surely never reach’d my ears,
Nor words did ever with such lustre shine!
Though all who read, may not that beauty see,
Nor feel the truths that sin sick hearts console,
Yet, O, it was a blessed text to me,
By which the Lord spoke peace unto my soul!
’Tis mystery all! ’Tis like the wind that blows!
I hear its sound, as it sweeps through the wood,
I feel it come, but know not where it goes,—
And so is every one that’s born of God!
Now I can sing, “My soul is sick of love!”—
Of love to God, and every one I see;
Nor smiles, nor frowns, my happy soul can move,
A friend or stranger is alike to me!
But will the Lord such rebels still receive?
Can angels sing for such a wretch as I?
Did Jesus die, that one so vile might live?
So vile, so full of sin and misery!
Yes! He the sinner doth invite to come;
For rich, for poor, for all his grace is free!
Fly, sinners, fly to Christ, there yet is room
For all who feel their guilt and misery.
The King is now my Friend, I cannot doubt,
For he His witness doth to me impart;
He’ll bind the strong man arm’d, and cast him out,
And pour the living stream into my heart!
O happy soul, when thus to life restor’d,
Let folly end, where genuine hope begins;
He finds a heaven, who truly finds the Lord,
But he that finds this heaven, must lose his sins!
O may I learn to do the thing that’s right,
My love to God, by true obedience show;
And read, and wrestle, strive, rebuke, and fight,
And watch, and pray, and to perfection grow!
So when my warfare here on earth is past,
And Death on me his chilling hand shall lay,
God will receive my ransom’d soul at last,
To live and reign with Him, in endless day!
[The end]
John Castillo's poem: On The First Text Heard Spiritually
________________________________________________
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
