7

Prayer for a Blessing

I

Now, gracious Lord, thine arm reveal,
And make thy glory known;
Now let us all thy presence feel,
And soften hearts of stone!

II

Help us to venture near thy throne,
And plead a Saviour’s name;
For all that we can call our own
Is vanity and shame.

III

From all the guilt of former sin
May mercy set us free;
And let the year we now begin
Begin and end with thee.

IV

Send down thy Spirit from above,
That saints may love thee more;
And sinners now may learn to love
Who never loved before.

V

And when before thee we appear,
In our eternal home,
May growing numbers worship here,
And praise thee in our room.

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–#L20.

Cite this poem

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

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