Oh! for a closer walk with God

Quote byWilliam Cowper · 1731–1800

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Olney Hymns (1779), No. 1, "Walking With God", st. 1.

English (original)

Oh! for a closer walk with God, A calm and heav'nly frame; A light to shine upon the road That leads me to the Lamb!

— William Cowper

Man disobeys, and deity disowns me.

But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.

Absence from whom we love is worse than death, And frustrate hope severer than despair.

Beware of desp'rate steps! The darkest day (Live till tomorrow) will have passed away.

Damned below Judas; more abhorred than he was.

Oh! I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pockets.