1. HOW oft, alas! this wretched heart
Has wandered from the Lord!

How oft my roving thoughts depart,
Forgetful of his word!

2. Yet sovereign mercy calls, "Return!"
Dear Lord, and may I come?

My vile ingratitude I mourn:

O, take the wanderer home.

3. And canst thou, wilt thou yet forgive,
And bid my crimes remove?

And shall a pardoned rebel live,
To speak thy wondrous love?

4. Almighty grace, thy healing power,
How glorious! how divine!
That can to life and bliss restore
So vile a heart as mine.

5. Thy pardoning love, so free, so sweet,

73.

Dear Saviour, I adore;

O, keep me at thy sacred feet,

And let me rove no more.

C. M.

Trust of the Wicked.

1. SEE how the worthless bramble stands
Beneath a burning sky;
Withered and parched in barren sands,
And only grows to die.

2. Such is the sinner's awful case,

Who makes the world his trust;
And dares his confidence to place
In vanity and dust...

3. A secret curse destroys his root,
And dries its moisture up
He lives awhile, but bears no fruit,
Then dies without a hope.

Steele.

Newton.

74.

C. M.

Repentance, and Faith in the Blood of Christ.

1. O GOD of mercy, hear my call,
My load of guilt remove;
Break down this separating wall
That bars me from thy love.

2. Give me the presence of thy grace;
Then my rejoicing tongue

Shall speak aloud thy righteousness,
And make thy praise my song.

3. No blood of goats, nor heifer slain,
For sin could e'er atone:

The death of Christ shall still remain
Sufficient and alone.

4. A soul oppressed with sin's desert,
My God will ne'er despise;

A humble groan, a broken heart,
Is our best sacrifice.

Watts.

FARRANT. C. M.

FARRANT.

3 4

4

Sinners, behold that downward road, Which leads to endless wo;

1. SINNERS, behold that downward road,
Which leads to endless wo;
What multitudes of thoughtless souls
The road to ruin go!

2. But yonder see that narrow way,
Which leads to endless bliss;
There see a happy, chosen few,
Redeemed by sovereign grace.

3. They from destruction's city came,
To Zion upward tend:

The Bible is their precious guide,
And God himself their friend.

4. Lord, I would now a pilgrim be;
Guide thou my feet aright;

I would not for ten thousand worlds
Be banished from thy sight.

Dobell.

76.

C. M.

No Concealment for the Sinner.

1. LORD, where shall guilty souls retire,
Forgotten and unknown?

In hell they meet thy dreadful fire,
In heaven thy glorious throne?

2. Should I suppress my vital breath,
To 'scape the wrath divine,

Thy voice could break the bars of death,
And make the grave resign.

3. If, winged with beams of morning light,
I fly beyond the west,

Thy hand, which must support my flight,
Would soon betray my rest.

4. If o'er my sins I think to draw
The curtains of the night,

Those flaming eyes that guard thy law,
Would turn the shades to light.

5. The beams of noon, the midnight hour,
Are both alike to thee;

77.

O, may I ne'er provoke that power
From which I cannot flee.

C. M.

Regeneration.

1. SINNERS, this solemn truth regard,
Hear, all ye sons of men!

For Christ the Saviour hath declared,
"Ye must be born again."

2. Whate'er might be your birth or blood,
The sinner's boast is vain;
Thus saith the glorious Son of God,
"Ye must be born again."

3. Our nature's totally depraved,
The heart a sink of sin;
Without a change we can't be saved:
"Ye must be born again."

4. Spirit of life, thy grace impart,
And breathe on sinners slain;
Bear witness, Lord, in every heart,
That we are born again.

Watts.

Hoskins

78.

C. M.

Breathing after the Holy Spirit.

1. COME, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
With all thy quickening powers;
Kindle a flame of sacred love

In these cold hearts of ours.

2. Look, how we grovel here below,
Fond of these trifling toys!

Our souls can neither fly nor go,
To reach eternal joys.

3. In vain we tune our formal songs,
In vain we strive to rise;

Hosannas languish on our tongues,
And our devotion dies.

4. Dear Lord! and shall we ever live
At this poor dying rate?

Our love so faint, so cold to thee,
And thine to us so great?