Charles Wesley
(1707-1788)
O for a heart to praise my God,
A heart from sin set free!
A heart that always feels Thy blood
So freely shed for me!
A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
My dear Redeemer’s throne,
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone.
A humble, lowly, contrite heart
Believing, true, and clean,
Which neither life nor death can part
From Him that dwells within.1
A heart in every thought renewed
And full of love Divine,
Perfect, and right, and pure, and good,
A copy, Lord, of Thine.
Thy tender heart is still the same
And melts at human woe:
Jesu, for Thee distressed I am,
I want Thy love to know.
My heart, Thou know’st, can never rest
Till Thou create my peace;
Till, of my Eden repossessed
From self and sin I cease.
Fruit of Thy gracious lips, on me
Bestow that peace unknown,
The hidden manna, and the Tree
Of Life, and the white stone.
Thy nature, dearest Lord, impart;
Come quickly from above,
Write Thy new name upon my heart,
Thy new, best name of Love.2
- This third stanza is quoted by Percy Gutteridge in The Sevenfold Holy Spirit. ↩
- Jim Kerwin quotes this last stanza in A Book Unsealed. ↩