Verse 1
Father of mercies, God of love,
Whose bowels of compassion move,
To sinful worms, whose arms embrace,
And strain to hold a struggling race!

Verse 2
With me still let thy Spirit strive,
Have patience, till my heart I give;
Assist me to obey thy call,
And give me power to pay thee all.

Verse 3
If now my nature’s weight I feel,
And groan to render up my will,
Not long the kind relentings stay,
The morning vapour fleets away.

Verse 4
A monster to myself I am,
Asham’d to feel no deeper shame;
Pain’d, that my pain so soon is o’er,
And griev’d that I can grieve no more.

Verse 5
O who shall save the man of sin?
O when[1] shall end this war within?
How shall my captive soul break thro’?
Who shall attempt my rescue? Who?

Verse 6
A wretch from sin and death set free?—
Answer, O answer, Christ, for me,
“The grace of an accepting God,
The virtue of a Saviour’s blood.”

[1] One 1739 edition gave “When when” instead of “O When.”