302. Sanctification Hymn

This wasn't one of the hymns I've been planning for Edifying Hymns. A bonus, I guess; it suggested itself to me while I was listening to a sermon last Sunday, and I hastily scribbled the first stanza on a communion registration card. It took me until now to work out where it was going from there. So here it is, with a perhaps too-subtle run-through of the 10 commandments embedded in it.

Tune: ERHALT UNS, HERR

Lord, on our hearts Your gospel sow;
True faith and love there cause to grow.
Root out the false gods of our flesh;
From dead works' chaff Your harvest thresh.

Remove all misuse of Your name
From what we practice and proclaim.
Secure our holy day of rest
That we may count Your gifts the best.

To them who lead, our hearts subject
Lest they with grief our ways correct.
Defend Your sacred gift of life;
Likewise the bond of man and wife.

Turn thieving hands to honest toil.
Let truth the liar's gambit foil.
From evil thoughts our hearts defend.
Teach us our neighbor to befriend.

When we have done all we can do,
We yet fall short in serving You.
Show us, therefore, Your grace again;
Renew us in the inner man.

Renew, we say, in Christlike fit,
Our ways till at His feet we sit
And there, with faith and love aglow,
At last unsullied fruit we show.