“Loosed are the bands thy soul which chain’d, My Father’s love and grace regain’d;” Such are the words by which to-day My Saviour chased my grief away. | ’Tis even so: His death and pain God’s favour have restored again; For me my ‘highest good’ is won, The work of grace is fully done. | Here righteousness and peace abound, The festal robe I here have found, Which, covering all my guilt and sin, Has made my soul at peace within. | This Christ hath wrought, my blessed Lord, Who feeds me at his gracious board, And gladness fills my heart and mind, To think that pardon here I find. | Into my Father’s presence dread, No longer now I fear to tread; His wrath appeased through Christ, his Son, He bids me come before his throne. | He now regards me as his child, Since I through Christ am reconciled; Washed in the blood from Jesu’s side, To me heaven’s gate is open’d wide. | Thy Holy Spirit, Christ, impart, Work true repentance in my heart, That e’en from sin’s remotest brink With deep abhorrence I may shrink; | That so I may not fall again, By sinning, into Satan’s chain, Nor throw my Father’s grace away, By going any more astray. | So shall I die at peace with Thee, From sin and sinner’s doom set free, And at the Lamb’s own marriage-feast, In heaven become a constant guest. | |