Faith, a New and Comprehensive Sense (John Newton)

This visceral poem could be paraphrased as loving and delighting in God with all of our five senses and the entirety of our being.

Sight, hearing, feeling, taste and smell,

Are gifts we highly prize;

But faith does singly each excel,

And all the five comprise.

More piercing than the eagle's flight

It views the world unknown;

Surveys the glorious realms of light,

And Jesus on the throne.

It hears the mighty voice of God,

And ponders what he saith

His word and works, his gifts and rod,

Have each a voice to faith.

It feels the touch of heavenly pow'r, (Lk 8:46)

And from that boundless source,

Derives fresh vigor every hour,

To run its daily course.

It smells the dear Redeemer's name

Like ointment poured forth; SS 1:3

Faith only knows or can proclaim,

Its favor or its worth.

Till saving faith possess the mind,

In vain of sense we boast;

We are but senseless, tasteless, blind,

And deaf, and dead, and lost.

John Newton, Faith a New and Comprehensive Sense.

God, Our Intimate Friend (Ps 63:1-11). Tim Keller.
Intimacy with God (Rev 3:14-22). Andy Stanley.
Thoughts on Religious Experience, Archibald Alexander (1772-1851), 1844.