21

The Lord’s Call to His Children

I

Let us adore the grace that seeks
To draw our hearts above!
Attend, ’tis God the Saviour speaks,
And every word is love.

II

Though fill’d with awe, before his throne
Each angel veils his face;
He claims a people for his own
Amongst our sinful race.

III

Careless, awhile, they live in sin,
Enslaved to Satan’s power;
But they obey the call divine
In his appointed hour.

IV

“Come forth,” He says, “no more pursue
The paths that lead to death;
Look up, a bleeding Saviour view;
Look, and be saved by faith.

V

“My sons and daughters you shall be
Through the atoning blood;
And you shall claim and find in me
A Father and a God.”

VI

Lord, speak these words to every heart,
By thine all-powerful voice;
That we may now from sin depart,
And make thy love our choice.

VII

If now we learn to seek thy face
By Christ the living way,
We’ll praise thee for this hour of grace,
Through an eternal day.

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–#L28.

Cite this poem

John Newton (1725–1807). “The Lord’s Call to His Children.” First published in Olney Hymns (1779). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-newton/the-lords-call-to-his-children/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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