Unless the heart is broken
True love to Christ cannot flow
Only a heart that is broken
Can the beauty of Christ know
O that I would be broken
Over a true sight of my sin
Then real compassion and love
Would flow to enemy and kin
But pride is most crafty
It loves to veil itself
In the guise of lowliness
This subtle cloak and shell
Pride is the worst of sins
It taints the best of deeds
Its power is overwhelming
Its death my greatest need
It is the first sin that corrupted
The most exalted of God’s creatures
It is this stubborn sin
That sets a student against his teachers
Till this disease is cured
All medicines are applied in vain[1]
Until this enemy is mortally wounded
There will be no spiritual gain
Self is its focus
Glory is its aim
Honor is its desire
Promotion, advancement, and fame
But how often I am helpless
Before this vigorous foe
It skews all my judgment
And tosses me to and fro
It sets me against my friends
To question all they do
To wonder at their sincerity
Whether they are false or true
Pride entices me to despise instruction
And guards me against the light
It blinds me to the truth
And then convinces me I am right
It puts me far away
From the word of any guide
It spurns all help and assistance
Even that which time has tried
Pride deceives me without warning
And perplexes me utterly sore
Even when I think its gone
It has grown all the more
But O that I would be like Job
And be put upon my face
With my hand upon my mouth
Finally relying on only grace
Please relieve me O God
Bend down and hear my cry
Send Your Holy Spirit
Help me remove this forest from my eye
Men whom God has made great
Have been first crushed and made small
God first must treat this infection
Before the tree can grow straight and tall
I want, I want to be truly humble
To be broken before Your throne
This is life and safety
For this my soul doth groan
[1] This phrase in line 22 is taken from Jonathan Edwards. Undiscerned Spiritual Pride, Works, Volume II (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers), 368.
From the Study 