The Hold-fast

I threaten'd to observe the strict decree

    Of my dear God with all my power and might;

    But I was told by one it could not be;

Yet I might trust in God to be my light.

"Then will I trust," said I, "in Him alone."

    "Nay, e'en to trust in Him was also His:

    We must confess that nothing is our own."

"Then I confess that He my succour is."

"But to have nought is ours, not to confess

    That we have nought." I stood amaz'd at this,

    Much troubled, till I heard a friend express

That all things were more ours by being His;

    What Adam had, and forfeited for all,

    Christ keepeth now, who cannot fail or fall.