Wesley Corpus

What alas! I once have been Nothing avails me now:42 I the servant am of sin, While to its yoke I bow: While the love of sin remains, Christ in me can never dwell, Christ with Belial never reigns, Nor mixes heaven with hell. Can unholy actions suit With one that is in thee? Jesu, thou hast said, the fruit Must answer to the tree: If the tree (the heart) were good, Evil thoughts it could not bear, Could not be by sin subdu'd, If thou, my God, wert there. Can the self-same fountain yield Both bitter streams and sweet? In a soul by Jesus fill'd Can Satan find a seat? No, my Lord, I am not clean, Am not inwardly renew'd, Am not (for I still can sin) I am not born of God. See, I give up all at last, My boasted gifts disclaim, Trust no more in graces past, But now condemn'd I am: Nothing do I bring to thee, That I may thy mercy move, No one spark remains in me Of faith, or hope, or love. If but one good thought could buy Thy grace, and heaven win, Lord, not one good thought have I, My all is self, and sin; 42The first two lines of this stanza were omitted in the original, but added in the errata. Page 62 Full of guilt and misery, Saviour, at thy feet I fall, See, the unbeliever see, The sinner stript of all! Let me never, never more My wretched soul deceive, Dream that I have life, before I hear thy voice, and live: Let me, humbled in the dust, Wait to taste how good thou art, See, and feel, but never trust My own deceitful heart. O that I could truly wait The dictates of thy will, Calmly mourn my sinful state, Till thou shall43 say "Be still! The lost sheep to save I came, The backslider to restore; Sinners I do not condemn; Depart, and sin no more." Another The Backslider. Oh! The dire effects of sin! What tongue can fully tell All that I have felt within, Since first from grace I fell! Still thou seest my stormy breast, My soul is as the troubled sea, Never, never can I rest, Till I believe in thee.