The next in my series on great old hymns is one that is actually, as hymns go, quite young, but still worth featuring here.
Make me a captive, Lord,
And then I shall be free;
Force me to render up my sword,
And I shall conqueror be.
I sink in life’s alarms
When by myself I stand;
Imprison me within Thine arms,
And strong shall be my hand.My heart is weak and poor
Until it master find;
It has no spring of action sure—
It varies with the wind.
It cannot freely move
Till Thou has wrought its chain;
Enslave it with Thy matchless love,
And deathless it shall reign.My power is faint and low
Till I have learned to serve;
It wants the needed fire to glow,
It wants the breeze to nerve;
It cannot drive the world
Until itself be driven;
Its flag can only be unfurled
When Thou shalt breathe from heaven.My will is not my own
Till Thou hast made it Thine;
If it would reach a monarch’s throne
It must its crown resign;
It only stands unbent
Amid the clashing strife
When on Thy bosom it has leant
And found in Thee its life.
Dating to 1890, this was well into the period when most texts being written that most people now call “hymns” were what I firmly identify as “gospel choruses,” but I see this as clearly in the same form as the other hymns I have featured in this series.
When I began investigating this hymn for this post, I found that the oldest version in Hymnary, my usual first stop, had one more verse than I knew but also had one difference that seemed to nearly destroy the meter of a line, so I went looking for the original, finding it in a copy of the author’s Sacred Songs.
Part of my fondness for this hymn comes from the choice by the editors of my family’s usual hymnal to pair the text with the tune “St. Bride”, a somewhat-haunting tune that I have never sung to any other text. Mostly, however, I count this hymn as one of my favorites because it is an evocative description of one of the great struggles of the Christian life.
Shine Cycle Online 