He has sent me to declare,
All is ready, all is free:
Why should any soul despair
When He saved a wretch like me?
Perhaps it was with Cowper in his mind he wrote that beautiful and touching hymn for private devotion, which has been often most unjustly censured—‘’Tis a point I long to know.’ Newton, like Bunyan, knew how sincere a pilgrim Mr. Little Faith was, and each in his own way sought to comfort him. There is good robust common sense in the prayer of the last two verses. In strength and beauty it does not compare with Cowper’s hymn on the same text, ‘Lovest thou Me?’ which Mr. Gladstone reckoned one of the three greatest English hymns; but it belongs to the Christian treasury, and has brought help to many.
Lord, decide the doubtful case,
Thou who art Thy people’s sun,
Shine upon the work of grace,
If it be indeed begun.
Let me love Thee more and more,