Hymn Lyrics

PLEASE NOTE: Not all verses may be sung and words may vary in the particular hymn presentation.

Is This the Kind Return?
Words: Isaac Watts (1674–1748)
Music: Idumea | Ananias Davisson in Harmonia Sacra, being a Compilation of Genuine Church Music, and Originally Published in 1832
1. Is this the kind return,
And these the thanks we owe,
Thus to abuse eternal love,
Whence all our blessings flow?

2. To what a stubborn frame
Has sin reduced our mind!
What strange rebellious wretches we,
And God as strangely kind!

3. On us He bids the sun
Shed his reviving rays;
For us the skies their circles run,
To lengthen out our days.

4. The brutes obey their God,
And bow their necks to men;
But we, more base, more brutish things,
Reject His easy reign.

5. Turn, turn us, mighty God,
And mould our souls afresh;
Break, sov’reign grace, these hearts of stone,
And give us hearts of flesh.

6. Let old ingratitude
Provoke our weeping eyes,
And hourly as new mercies fall
Let hourly thanks arise.