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    FORGIVING Lord, how kind
   Are all Thy ways to me,
    Whose once-benighted mind
        Was enmity with Thee;
Yet now, subdued by sovereign grace
My spirit longs for Thine embrace.
 
2      How precious are Thy thoughts,
        That o’er my spirit roll;
    They look beyond my faults,
        And captivate my soul;
How great their sum, how high they rise
Can ne’er be known beneath the skies.
 
3      Preserved in Jesus, when
        My feet made haste to hell;
    And there should I have gone,
        But Thou didst all things well;
Thy love was great, Thy mercy free,
Which from the pit delivered me.
 
4      A monument of grace,
        A sinner saved by blood:
    The streams of love I trace
        Up to their fountain—God!
And in His heart of mercy see
Eternal thoughts of love to me.
 
5      Before Thy hands had made
        The sun to rule the day,
    Or earth’s foundations laid,
        Or fashioned Adam’s clay,
What thoughts of peace and mercy flowed
In Thy blest Being, O my God!
 
John Kent, 1766-1843