Father, accept my fervent prayer

Verse 1
Father, accept my fervent prayer,
While to thy throne of grace I bear
A much-respected Sire;
Life, endless life for Him I claim,
And what I ask in Jesus Name
With all my soul require.

Verse 2
O for my dear Redeemer’s sake
Let Him the precious faith partake
Which Thou to me hast given,
The mountain-obstacles remove
And bless him with a taste of love,
The antepast of heaven.

Verse 3
Thou knowst the burthen of my heart:
Shall I be blest with Mary’s part
The meanest handmaid I,
And shall the man who gave me birth
Affect the world, and cleave to earth,
And unconverted die?

Verse 4
Forbid it, gracious God, forbid!
And let th’ Incorruptible Seed
This moment stir within;
And never suffer him to rest,
Till of thy pardning love possest
He lives redeem’d from sin.

Verse 5
Still will I wrestle on with Thee,
With violent importunity
My instant suit repeat,
Till Thou in mercy cast him down,
And own him for a pleasant Son
When weeping at thy feet.

Verse 6
Fain woud I weep my life away,
My life for his a ransom pay;
But mine cannot suffice:
More than a thousand worlds it cost
To save a single sinner lost,
And bid his soul arise.

Verse 7
O might the blood that flow’d for him,
For me, for all, our souls redeem,
And speak us up to Thee,
As vessels of peculiar grace
To bless thy name and sing thy praise,
Thro’ all eternity.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “The Prayer Of a Daughter for her Father. [I.]” This hymn appears in the manuscript “MS Miscellaneous Verse 1786.” 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 1977/594/17, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 5). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 3 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1992), pages 297-98.
Publishing: Public Domain