Sunday, March 26, 2023

O how shall a sinner perform?

455 10th P. M. 8 lines 8s
Thy vows are upon me, O God.

O HOW shall a sinner perform
   The vows he hath vow’d to the Lord?
   A sinful and impotent worm,
   How can I be true to my word?
   I tremble at what I have done:
   O send me thy help from above:
   The power of thy Spirit make known
   The virtue of Jesus’s love.

2 My solemn engagements are vain;
   My promises empty as air;
   My vows, I shall break them again,
   And plunge in eternal despair:
   Unless my omnipotent God
   The sense of his goodness impart,
   And shed, by his Spirit, abroad
   The love of himself in my heart.
                        Charles Wesley
                        Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

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