Dreadful—sin-chastising GOD

Verse 1
Dreadful—sin-chastising GOD,
Must I always bear thy Rod?
Wilt Thou still persist to chide,
Never lay thy Wrath aside?
O for Mercy’ sake release;
When Thou hast restor’d my Peace
Bear my wretched Soul away,
Take me from the Evil Day.

Verse 2
End these dire Effects of Sin
Wars without and Fears within,
Publick, and intestine Strife
All the Bitterness of Life:
Wherefore shoud I longer live,
Live, to suffer, and to grieve,
Bear my wretched Soul away,
Take me from the Evil Day.

Verse 3
All my Happiness is fled,
All my Hopes of Joy are dead,
Only Sin remains in me,
Desperate Sin and Misery:
Lord, Thou knowst the Pains I feel,
Guilt, that knawing Worm of Hell,
[Bear my wretched Soul away,
Take me from the Evil Day.]

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “Another [Penitential].” This hymn appears in the mid-1750s manuscript “MS Richmond.” 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 1977/551, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 1). 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 3 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1992) pages 150.
Publishing: Public Domain