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*Ebenezer (Heb: ‘stone of help’) −
a public memorial to the help of
the Lord in 1 Samuel 7:12
BEGONE, unbelief;
   My Saviour is near,
And for my relief
    Will surely appear:
By prayer let me wrestle,
    And He will perform;
With Christ in the vessel,
    I smile at the storm.
 
2  Though dark be my way,
    Since He is my Guide,
’Tis mine to obey,
    ’Tis His to provide;
Though cisterns be broken
    And creatures all fail,
The Word He has spoken
    Shall surely prevail.
 
3  His love in time past
    Forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last
    In trouble to sink;
Each sweet Ebenezer*
    I have in review,
Confirms His good pleasure
    To help me quite through.
 
4  Determined to save,
    He watched o’er my path,
When, Satan’s blind slave,
    I sported with death;
And can He have taught me
    To trust in His name,
And thus far have brought me,
    To put me to shame?
 
5  Why should I complain
    Of want or distress,
Temptation or pain?
    He told me no less:
The heirs of salvation,
    I know from His Word,
Through much tribulation
    Must follow their Lord.
 
6  How bitter that cup,
    No heart can conceive,
Which He drank right up,
    That sinners might live:
His way was much rougher
    And darker than mine;
Did Jesus thus suffer,
    And shall I repine?
 
7  Since all that I meet
    Shall work for my good,
The bitter is sweet,
    The med’cine is food;
Though painful at present,
    They cease before long;
And then, O how pleasant
    The conqueror’s song!
 
John Newton, 1725-1807