The World Renounced

Go, worthless world!  I’ve tried and found
Thy hollowness at last:

Go, worthless world!  I’ve tried and found
Thy hollowness at last:
I know thee now an empty sound,
And spurn at all thou hast.

Thy smiles, thy flatteries, thy deceit,
I’ve scanned them o’er and o’er.
Go, other hearts to snare and cheat;
Thou holdest mine no more.

I’ve been thy dupe, I’ve been thy scoff,
For years I’ve worn thy chain:
My Saviour came and called me off,
And I am free again;

Free with the freedom Christ bestows;
Divinely, greatly free;
Redeemed from follies, sins, and woes;
Redeemed, false world, from thee!

Still must I linger ‘mid thy slaves,
A stranger yet a while;
Must toss on thy uncertain waves,
And meet thy specious smile:

The scoffs of pride, the snares of sense,
Must still my firmness try;
Till Christ returns to call me hence
To peace with Him on high.

I know me weak, and prone to fall;
Yet know, with Him my friend,
I still may pass unhurt through all
To glory in the end.

And while my sojourn here I make,
This, this my maxim be,
To love mankind for Jesus’ sake,
And spurn, false world, at thee.

Henry Francis Lyte