O God Eternal, when is it I am saved?

At Calvary, when your only son was slain,

Or was it even ere the world was made?

What of the time I knelt with inward pain

And cried in anguish: 'O my Lord, forgive'?

What, must I wait for yet some further grace

Before the life of joy I dare to live,

And struggle faintly in the heavenly race?

Or is there yet some deeper pain to bear;

In death to suffer as he did for me,

And only then assurance really share

As without faith the evidence I see?

The future's hope, nostalgic memory?

My God saves now; that's in eternity.

Thoughts on 1 Peter 1, following a doctrine class,

February 1968