Alms cannot atone, we know,
Cannot grace from God procure,
Yet at his command we show
Mercy to the helpless poor;
When our sins we truly leave,
We our neighbour’s wants supply,
Till to us the Saviour give
Food and raiment from the sky.
Alms cannot atone, we know
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘He that hath two coats let him impart to him that hath none &c.'—[Luke 3,] v. 11.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Luke.” 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 1977/575, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 2 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1990), page 87.
Publishing: Public Domain