Gadsby #25

25 C.M. Isaac Watts
Breathing after the Holy Spirit. Ps. 44:25,26

1 Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
With thy all-quickening powers;
Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold hearts of ours.

2 Look how we grovel here below,
Fond of these trifling toys;
Our souls can neither fly nor go,
To reach eternal joys.

3 In vain we tune our formal songs,
In vain we strive to rise;
Hosannas languish on our tongues,
And our devotion dies.

4 Dear Lord, and shall we ever live
At this poor dying rate?
Our love so faint, so cold to thee,
And thine to us so great?

5 Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
With thy all-quickening powers;
Come shed abroad a Saviour’s love,
And that shall kindle ours.

What is the cure to a "cold heart"? Nothing but Christ' love, mediated by the Spirit, can kindle the fires of our worship. The "trifling toys" of this world are a bucket of water on the fires of worship. If we are loving the world, we are not loving God. The only thing, rather, the only person who can save us from a "love so faint" which decelerates our lives to a "poor dying rate" is the Spirit. Our lives, service, and worship of God are vain and full of toil if the Spirit is not present in them. If the Spirit is not present, even our corporate worship will be filled with languishing Hosannas and dead devotion. We need the Spirit far more than we realize. May he come and "shed abroad the Saviour's love" and truly, "that shall kindle ours".