To feel the virtue of Thy blood,
And spread its praise below!
4 I wait my vigour to renew,
Thine image to retrieve,

The veil of outward things pass through,
And gasp in Thee to live.

5 I work; and own the labour vain;
And thus from works I cease:
I strive, and see my fruitless pain,
"Till God create my peace.

6 Fruitless, till Thou Thyself impart,
Must all my efforts prove:
They cannot change a sinful heart ;
They cannot purchase love.

7 I do the thing Thy laws enjoin,
And then the strife give o'er;
To Thee I then the whole resign;
I trust in means no more.

8 I trust in Him, who stands between
The Father's wrath and me;

338

Jesu! Thou great eternal Mean,
I look for all from Thee.

MY say?

Y gracious, loving Lord,

2

To Thee what shall I

Well may I tremble at Thy word,

And scarce presume to pray.
Ten thousand wants have I :
Alas! I all things want;
But Thou hast bid me always cry,
And never, never faint.

Yet, Lord, well might I fear,
Fear even to ask Thy grace;
So oft have I, alas! drawn near,
And mocked Thee to Thy face:
With all pollutions stained,
Thy hallowed courts I trod :

3

4

5

Thy name and temple I profaned,
And dared to call Thee God!

Nigh with my lips I drew;
My lips were all unclean:

Thee with my heart I never knew ;
My heart was full of sin :
Far from the living Lord,
As far as hell from heaven,
Thy purity I still abhorred,
Nor looked to be forgiven.
My nature I obeyed:
My own desires pursued;

And still a den of thieves I made
The hallowed house of God.
The worship He approves
To Him I would not pay :
My selfish ends, and creature-loves,
Had stole my heart away.
My sin and nakedness

I studied to disguise,

Spoke to my soul a flattering peace,
And put out my own eyes:
In fig-leaves I appeared,

Nor with my form would part;

But still retained a conscience seared,

A hard, deceitful heart.

7

I long appeared in sight:

By self, and Satan taught to paint

My tomb, my nature, white.

The Pharisee within

Still undisturbed remained;

The strong man armed with guilt of sin,

Safe in his palace reigned.

But O! the jealous God

In my behalf came down,

Jesus Himself the stronger showed,

And claimed me for His own:

8

339

My spirit He alarmed,

And brought into distress;

He shook, and bound the strong man armed
In his self-righteousness.

Faded my virtuous show,
My form without the power;
The sin-convincing Spirit blew,
And blasted every flower :
My mouth was stopped, and shame
Covered my guilty face:

I fell on the atoning Lamb,
And I was saved by grace.

(123)

ENSLA

ANSLAVED to sense, to pleasure prone,
Fond of created good;

Father, our helplessness we own,

And trembling taste our food.

2 Trembling, we taste; for ah! no more
To Thee the creatures lead:

Changed, they exert a baneful power,
And poison while they feed.

3 Cursed for the sake of wretched man,
They now engross him whole;
With pleasing force on earth detain
And sensualize his soul.

4 Grov❜ling on earth we still must lie,
Till Christ the curse repeal;

Till Christ, descending from on high,
Infected nature heal.

5 Come, then, our heavenly Adam, come,
Thy healing influence give :
Hallow our food, reverse our doom,
And bid us eat, and live!

6 The bondage of corruption break;
For this our spirits groan;

Thy only will we fain would seek,
O save us from our own!

7 Turn the full stream of nature's tide;
Let all our actions tend

To Thee their Source: Thy love the guide,
Thy glory be the end.

8 Earth then a scale to heaven shall be ;
Sense shall point out the road;

The creatures all shall lead to Thee,
And all we taste be God.

JESU, if still Thou art to-day
As yesterday the same,

C. WESLEY. 1740.

Present to heal, in me display
The virtue of Thy Name.
2 If still Thou goest about to do
Thy needy creatures good,
On me, that I Thy praise may show,
Be all Thy wonders showed.

3 Now, Lord, to whom for help I call,
Thy miracles repeat;

With pitying eyes behold me fall
A leper at Thy feet.

4 Loathsome, and vile, and self-abhorred,
I sink beneath my sin;

But if Thou wilt, a gracious word
Of Thine can make me clean.

5 Thou seest me deaf to Thy commands,
Open, O Lord, my ear:

Bid me stretch out my withered hands
And lift them up in prayer.

6 Silent, (alas! Thou knowest how long,)
My voice I cannot raise:

But O when Thou shalt loose my tongue,
The dumb shall sing Thy praise.

7 Lame at the pool I still am found;
Give, and my strength employ :
Light as a hart I then shall bound;
The lame shall leap for joy.

8 Blind from my birth to guilt and Thee, And dark I am within :

The love of God I cannot see,

The sinfulness of sin.

9 But Thou, they say, art passing by.
O let me find Thee near;
Jesu, in mercy hear my cry,
Thou Son of David, hear!

10 Behold me waiting in the way
For Thee, the heavenly Light;
Command me to be brought, and say,
"Sinner, receive Thy sight!"

341

(87)

C.M.

PART II.

C. WESLEY. 1740.

HILE dead in trespasses I lie,
Why quickening Spirit give:

Call me, Thou Son of God, that I
May hear Thy voice, and live.
2 While, full of anguish and disease,
My weak, distempered soul
Thy love compassionately sees,
Ŏ let it make me whole!

3 Cast out Thy foes, and let them still
To Jesu's Name submit:

Clothe with Thy righteousness, and heal,
And place me at Thy feet.

4 To Jesu's Name if all things now
A trembling homage pay;
my stubborn spirit bow,

O let

My stiff-necked will obey!

5 Impotent, dumb, and deaf, and blind, And sick, and poor I am;

But sure a remedy to find

For all in Jesu's Name.

6 I know in Thee all fulness dwells, And all for wretched man :