Hymnal: The Christian Hymn Book
Date: 1865
Compiler: Alexander Campbell
Publisher/Printer: Central Book Concern
First Line: God's law demands one living faith
Topic: The Holy Scriptures
Writer: <no first name given> Briggs
Composer:
Meter: LM
Tune:
Hymn Number: 7
Page Number: 008, click to see hymnal pages
LyicsGod's law demands one living faith.
Not a gaunt crowd of lifeless creeds;
It warrant is a firm "God saith;"
Its claim, not words, but loving deeds.
Yet Lord, forgive; thy simple law
Grows tarnished in our earthly grasp;
Pure in itself, without a flow.
It dims in our too worldly clasp.
We handle it with unwashed hands;
We stain it with unhallowed breath;
We gloss it with device of man's
And hid thine image underneath.
Forgive the sacrilege and take
From off our souls th' unworthy stain;
And show us, for thy Son's dear sake,
Thy pure and perfect law again.