Oh, Grace of God in Christ

My poetry sounds like something from an earlier age. That makes sense because a lot of my reading is of earlier writers; I find their focus is different than much of what is out in our day and time. It seems to me that those who went before us were centered more on knowing God Himself rather than knowing about Him and what He can do for us. I'm sure that all of what gets written today is valid and worth knowing; it's just that my heart has been made captive to the One who died and rose again for me and I gravitate to those things that echo my attraction to Him.

So if my verse sounds like its lifted from an old hymnal, its because that language is what I've fed my spirit with, and that's what comes out. Actually, I prefer it this way; earlier writings were more weighty, more impacting. So if thou art ready, read on.

Oh, grace of God in Christ,
I raise my paen to Thee,
That ope'd my eyes, revived my soul,
And set my spirit free.

Thou many-hymned bequest of God,
How much to Thee I owe;
My eyes were closed to all above,
But not to here below,

For my delight in sensual usts
Did leap and bound apace;
I'd have no sense of things above
'Twere not for sovereign grace.

You snatched me from the miry clay,
From the very jaws of hell,
And set me firm upon the Rock,
And this I know full well.

For grace has set before me now
A land so vast, so fair,
And Eden of Thy pleasures, Lord,
And I am happy there.

THE WELL BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

I turned off one day from the much-beaten path
And there I did find an old well,
It was nearly half-hid by the side of the road
In a quaint little countryside dell

At the edge of a forest quite dark and quite deep
By the side of the old, dusty road,
Where the leaves grew so thick and the shadows they creeped,
And I stopped there and laid down my load.

A much-hurried traveler would never have seen
This place that by chance I had found,
But I was so weary and needed to rest,
So I stopped and laid my burden down.

Some grass grew around the side of the well;
I could tell it was not worn with wear
As it might have been if a multitude
Of others had often been there.

The stones were quite cool and damp to the touch,
In the shade of the green forest trees,
And I was refreshed just by being there
And caressed by a soft, gentle breeze.

I took off my hat and I laid down my staff,
Moved the planks from the mouth of the well;
Then I turned the crank and let down the wood pail
To bring water up from the well.

Never before had I drunk such as this -
'Twas so cool and so sweet and so pure;
It refreshed me throughout and I knew I had found
What I had been long searching for.

'Twas the water of life, for the well it was Christ,
And I felt I had met there with God.
And to think that I almost - I could have passed by
The well by the side of the road.