Formality lamented.
6 For you the purple current flow'd
In pardons from his wounded side;
Languish'd for you, the Son of God;
For you the Prince of glory died:
Believe, and all your sin's forgiven:
Only believe, and yours is heaven.
Behold the Lamb of God.
SEE, sinners, in the gospel glass,
The Friend and Saviour of mankind;
Not one of all the apostate race,
But may in him salvation find;
His thoughts, and words, and actions prove,
His life and death-that God is love.
2 Behold the Lamb of God, who bears
The sins of all the world away!
A servant's form he meekly wears;
He sojourns in a house of clay:
His glory is no longer seen,
But God with God, is man with men.
3 See where the God incarnate stands.
And calls his wandering creatures home:
He all day long spreads out his hands;
Come, weary souls, to Jesus come:
Ye all may hide you in his breast;
Believe, and he will give you rest. c. WESLEY.
PENITENTS: CONFESSION-SUPPLICA
Formality lamented.
LONG have I seem'd to serve thee, Lord,
With unavailing pain:
Fasted, and pray'd, and read thy word,
And heard it preach'd in vain.
2 Oft did I with the assembly join,
And near thy altar drew:
A form of godliness was mine,
The power I never knew,
3 I rested in the outward law;
Nor knew its deep design;
The length and breadth I never saw,
And height of love divine.
4 To please thee thus, at length I see,
Vainly I hoped and strove;
For what are outward things to thee-
Unless they spring from love?
5 I see thy perfect law requires
Truth in the inward parts;
Our full consent, our whole desires,
Our undivided hearts.
6 But I of means have made my boast,
Of means an idol made;
The spirit in the letter lost,
The substance in the shade.
7 Where am I now, or what my hope?
What can my weakness do?
Jesus, to thee my soul looks up!
'Tis thou must make it new.
FATHER of lights, from whom proceeds
Whate'er thy every creature needs;
Whose goodness, providently nigh,
Feeds the young ravens when they cry!
To thee I look, my heart prepare;
Suggest and hearken to my prayer.
2 Since by thy light myself I see,
Naked, and poor, and void of thee;
Thy eyes must all my thoughts survey,
Directing what my lips should say:
Thou seest my wants, for help they call,
And ere I speak, thou know'st them all.
Praying for Penitence.
3 Thou know'st the baseness of my mind,
Wayward, and impotent, and blind;
Thou know'st how unsubdued my will,
Averse to good, and prone to ill;
Thou know'st how wide my passions rove,
Nor check'd by fear, nor charm'd by love.
4 Fain would I know as known by thee,
And feel the indigence I see:
Fain would I all my vileness own,
And deep beneath the burden groan;
Abhor the pride that lurks within;
Detest, and loathe myself and sin.
5 Ah! give me, Lord, myself to feel;
And all my misery reveal:
Ah! give me, Lord (I still would say),
A heart to mourn, a heart to pray:
My business this, my only care,
My life, my every breath be prayer.
Praying for Penitence.
SAVIOUR, Prince of Israel's race,
See me from thy lofty throne:
Give the sweet relenting grace,
Soften this obdurate stone:
Stone to flesh, O God! convert;
Cast a look and break my
heart.
2 Jesus, seek thy wandering sheep,
Make me restless to return;
Bid me look on thee and weep,
Bitterly as Peter mourn;
Till I say, by grace restored,
Now thou know'st I love thee, Lord.
Might I in thy sight appear;
As the Publican distress'd;
Stand, not daring to draw near;
Smite on my unworthy breast;
Groan the sinner's only plea-
God be merciful to me!
Praying for Penitence.
4 Oh, remember me for good,
Passing through the mortal vale;
Show me the atoning blood,
When my strength and spi its fail:
Give my gasping soul to see
Jesus crucified for me,
Oн, that I could repent!
With all my idols part;
Aid to thy gracious eye present
An humble, contrite heart:
A heart with grief oppress'd,
For having grieved my God;
A roubled heart, that cannot rest,
Till sprinkled with thy blood.
Jesus, on me bestow
The penitent desire;
With true sincerity of woe,
My aching breast inspire;
With softening pity look,
And melt my hardness down;
Strike, with thy love's resistless stroke,
And break this heart of stone.
Oн, that I could revere,
My much-offended God;
Oh, that I could but stand in fear
Of thy afflicting rod:
If mercy cannot draw,
Thou by thy threat'nings move,
Ad keep an abject soul in awe,
That will not yield to love.
2 Show me the naked sword,
Impending o'er my head:
O, let me tremble at thy word,
And to my ways take heed;
Repentance unto Sa'vation.
With sacred horror fly
From every sinful snare;
Nor ever in my Judge's eye
My Judge's anger dare.
Thou great, tremendous God!
The conscious awe impart;
The grace be now on me bestow'd,
The tender fleshly heart;
For Jesu's sake alone,
The stony heart remove:
And melt at last, oh, melt me down,
Into the mould of love.
Oн, for that tenderness of heart,
Which bows before the Lord;
Acknowledging how just thou art;
And trembling at thy word.
2 Oh, for those humble, contrite tears
Which from repentance flow;
That consciousness of guilt which fears
The long-suspended blow.
3 Saviour, to me in pity give
The sensible distress;
The pledge thou wilt at last receive,
And bid me die in peace:
4 Wilt from the dreadful day remove,
Before the evil come;
My spirit hide with saints above,
My body in the tomb.
Repentance unto Salvation.
On, that I could repent!
Oh, that I could believe!
Thou, by thy voice, the marble rent,
The rock in sunder cleave:
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