How Da­vid, when by sin de­ceived,
From bad to worse went on!
For when the Ho­ly Spi­rit’s grieved,
Our strength and guard are gone.

His eye on Bath­she­ba once fixed,
With poi­son filled his soul;
He ven­tured on ad­ul­te­ry next,
And mur­der crowned the whole.

So from a spark of fire at first,
That has not been des­cried;
A dread­ful flame has oft­en burst,
And ra­vaged far and wide.

When sin de­ceives it hard­ens too,
For though he vain­ly fought
To hide his crimes from pub­lic view,
Of God he lit­tle thought.

He neith­er would, or could re­pent,
No true com­punc­tion felt;
’Till God in mer­cy Na­than sent,
His stub­born heart to melt.

The pa­ra­ble held forth a fact,
Designed his case to show;
But though the pic­ture was ex­act,
Himself he did not know.

Thou art the man, the pro­phet said,
That word his slum­ber broke;
And when he owned his sin, and prayed,
The Lord for­give­ness spoke.

Let those who think they stand be­ware,
For Da­vid stood be­fore;
Nor let the fall­en soul des­pair,
For mer­cy can re­store.