Ah, Lord, my ignorance I own

Verse 1
Ah, Lord, my ignorance I own,
Thy mind I cannot yet conceive,
But wait, till Thou, to make it known,
Thy own revealing Spirit give,
Thy lively oracles t’ explain,
And plant thy reigning power in man.

Verse 2
I read, but cannot comprehend
The depth of thy mysterious word;
But when Thou dost thy Spirit send,
I there shall find my pardning Lord,
By thy own light discover Thee,
And born of God, thy kingdom see.

Verse 3
Inthron’d again above the skies,
Thou hast obtain’d the Comforter,
Who opens our inlighten’d eyes,
By humble faith, and childlike fear,
Brings to our mind thy words of grace,
And all thy depths of love displays.

Verse 4
The veil remov’d we then perceive,
Th’ inexplicable book unseal’d,
Thy sovereign Deity believe
In whom the scriptures are fulfil’d,
Who dost thy gracious sway maintain,
And in our hearts triumphant reign.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembred they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.’—[John 12,] v. 16." This hymn appears in the 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. 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 487.
Publishing: Public Domain