Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Matthew 7:14
Words: John Newton, Olney Hymns (London: W. Oliver, 1779), Book 3, number 77. Are there few that shall be saved?
Music: Strait Gate Harmonia Sacra, 19th Century (🔊 pdf nwc).
Destruction’s dangerous road
What multitudes pursue!
While that which leads the soul to God,
Is known or sought by few.
Believers enter in
By Christ, the living gate;
But they who will not leave their sin,
Complain it is too strait.
If self must be denied,
And sin forsaken quite;
They rather choose the way that’s wide,
And strive to think it right.
Encompassed by a throng,
On numbers they depend;
So many surely can’t be wrong,
And miss a happy end.
But numbers are no mark
That men will right be found;
A few were saved in Noah’s ark,
For many millions drowned.
Obey the Gospel call,
And enter while you may;
The flock of Christ is always small,
And none are safe but they.
Lord, open sinners’ eyes
Their awful state to see
And make them, ere the storm arise,
To Thee for safety flee.