The inward Warfare. Galatians Chap. 5:17

1 Strange and mysterious is my life,

What opposites I feel within!

A stable peace, a constant strife!

The rule of grace, the pow’r of sin:

Too often I am captive led,

Yet daily triumph in my head.

2 I prize the privilege of pray’r,

But, oh! what backwardness to pray!

Though on the Lord I cast my care,

I feel its burden ev’ry day;

I seek his will in all I do,

Yet find my own is working too.

3 I call the promises my own,

And prize them more than mines of gold;

Yet though their sweetness I have known,

They leave me unimpress’d and cold:

One hour upon the truth I feed,

The next I know not what I read.

4 I love the holy day of rest,

When Jesus meets his gather’d saints;

Sweet day, of all the week the best!

For its return my spirit pants:

Yet often, through my unbelief,

It proves a day of guilt and grief.

5 While on my Saviour I rely,

I know my foes shall lose their aim;

And therefore dare their pow’r defy,

Assur’d of conquest through his name:

But soon my confidence is slain,

And all my fears return again.

6 Thus diff’rent pow’rs within me strive,

And grace and sin by turns prevail;

I grieve, rejoice, decline, revive,

And vict’ry hangs in doubtful scale:

But Jesus has his promise past,

That grace shall overcome at last.