"The Law Commands and Makes Us Know"
                           by Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
                                  Text From:
                      THE HANDBOOK TO THE LUTHERAN HYMNAL
             (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1942) p.210


        1. The Law commands and makes us know
        What duties to our God we owe;
        But 'tis the Gospel must reveal
        Where lies our strength to do his will.

        2. The Law discovers guilt and sin
        And shows how vile our hearts have been;
        The Gospel only can express
        Forgiving love and cleansing grace.

        3. What curses doth the Law denounce
        Against the man who fails but once!
        But in the Gospel Christ appears,
        Pardoning the guilt of numerous years.

        4. My soul, no more attempt to draw
        Thy life and comfort from the Law
        Fly to the hope the Gospel gives;
        The man that trusts the promise lives.

        

        Notes from _The Lutheran Hymnal_
        Hymn #289 
        Text: Ps. 19:9
        Author: Isaac Watts, 1709  
        Tune: "Old Hundredth"
        1st Published in: _Genevan Psalter_,1551
This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by Debbie Harris and is in the public domain. You may freely distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith Walther Library at Concordia Theological Seminary E-mail: bob_smith@ctsfw.edu
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