The truth, and blessedness, and need
Of this great change I know,
But do I witness it indeed,
Do I the tokens show?
Marks of this birth, they all are vain
Without thy Spirit’s power,
Then only am I born again,
When I can sin no more.
The truth, and blessedness, and need
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”—[John] iii. 3. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 340. Wesley later altered this hymn in his 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/573, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School.
Publishing: Public Domain