Cowper on Trials

        1    ’Tis my happiness below,
            Not to live without the cross,
            But the Saviour’s power to know,
            Sanctifying every loss.

        2    Trials must and will befall;
            But with humble faith to see
            Love inscribed upon them all,
            This is happiness to me.

        3    Trials make the promise sweet;
            Trials give new life to prayer;
            Trials bring me to his feet,
            Lay me low and keep me there.

        4    Did I meet no trials here,
            No chastisement by the way,
            Might I not with reason fear
            I should be a castaway?

        5    Bastards may escape the rod,
            Sunk in earthly, vain delight;
            But the true-born child of God
            Must not, would not if he might.

William Cowper, Gadsby's Hymns, No 282