Help us to merit

Granting a breath from God’s heaven to us.

Even stronger is the personal sentiment of this appealing hymn.

With her cruse of alabaster,

Filled with ointment rare and sweet,

Came the woman to the Master,

Knelt contritely at His feet,

Feeling with unfeigned contrition

How unfit was her condition

To approach the Holy One.

Like this woman, I contritely

Often must approach the Lord,

Knowing that I cannot rightly

Ask a place beside His board.

Sinful and devoid of merit,

I can only cry in spirit:

Lord, be merciful to me.

Lord of Grace and Mercy, harken

To my plea for grace and light.

Threatening clouds and tempests darken

Now my soul with gloomy night.

Let, despite my guilt and error,

My repenting tears still mirror

Thy forgiving smile, O Lord.

The following hymn likewise voices the need for personal perseverance.

Hast to the plow thou put thy hand

Let not thy spirit waver,

Heed not the world’s allurements grand,

Nor pause for Sodom’s favor.

But plow thy furrow, sow the seed,

Though tares and thorns thy work impede;

For they, who sow with weeping,

With joy shall soon be reaping.

But should at times thy courage fail—

For all may fail and falter—

Let not the tempting world prevail

On thee thy course to alter.

Each moment lost in faint retreat

May bring disaster and defeat.

If foes bid thee defiance,

On God be thy reliance.

If steadfast in the race we keep,

Our course is soon completed.

And death itself is but a sleep,

Its dreaded might defeated.

But those who conquer in the strife

Obtain the victor’s crown of life

And shall in constant gladness

Forget these days of sadness.

It is, perhaps, in his numerous hymns on Christian trust, comfort and hope that