His spirit was born blind,
Long sunk in su­per­sti­tion’s night,
Till, through the dark­ness of his mind,
God said, Let there be light.
Then, with the sec­re­cy of thought
A silent mi­ra­cle was wrought;
Like hid­den trea­sure, found un­sought,
The blind re­ceived his sight.
Thus to the eye, in death-shade sealed,
Power from above was giv­en to look
Upon the vol­ume of that Book
Which hath the light of life re­vealed;
Then, from the eter­nal throne,
On ev­ery page such glo­ry shone,
That line on line, as ray by ray,
Led up­ward into per­fect day,
And his freed soul, from su­per­sti­tion’s night,
Rose like the morn­ing-star in Go­spel light.
Not from the lips of err­ing man
His know­ledge of the truth be­gan;
If, as the sim­ple re­cord sa­ith,
He thus was saved by grace through faith.
By God him­self God’s work was done,
To him the Fa­ther sent the Son.

James Montgomery (1771–1854)