46

Gospel Privileges

I

O Happy they who know the Lord,
With whom he deigns to dwell!
He feels and cheers them by his word,
His arm supports them well.

II

To them, in each distressing hour,
His throne of grace is near;
And when they plead his love and power,
He stands engaged to hear.

III

He help’d his saints in ancient days,
Who trusted in his name;
And we can witness, to his praise,
His love is still the same.

IV

Wand’ring in sin, our souls he found,
And bade us seek his face;
Gave us to hear the gospel sound,
And taste the gospel grace.

V

Oft in his house his glory shines
Before our wond’ring eyes;
We wish not then for golden mines,
Or aught beneath the skies.

VI

His presence sweetens all our cares,
And makes our burdens light;
A word from him dispels our fears,
And gilds the gloom of night.

VII

Lord, we expect to suffer here,
Nor would we dare repine;
But give us still to find thee near,
And own us still for thine.

VIII

Let us enjoy and highly prize
These tokens of thy love
Till thou shalt bid our spirits rise
To worship thee above.

Where this text comes from

First published in Olney Hymns (1779). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2] [3]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-15.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns, book-2.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L32.

Cite this poem

John Newton (1725–1807). “Gospel Privileges.” First published in Olney Hymns (1779). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-newton/gospel-privileges/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

More by John Newton