Father, whose goodness knows no bound

Verse 1
Father, whose goodness knows no bound
If now in us thy bowels sound,
With yearning pity see
A ruffian stain’d with guiltless blood
A murtherer both of man and God,
A wretch as lost—as me!

Verse 2
In Jesus found, for Him we cry,
Whose heart doth all thy wrath defy,
And all thy patience scorn:
Who but our Advocate above
With all his power of dying love
The stone to flesh can turn?

Verse 3
Father, regard the sprinkled blood,
Which from the wounds of Jesus flow’d
Accepted sacrifice!
It did for all mankind atone,
And now it speaks before the throne,
And fills both earth and skies.

Verse 4
Louder than that his hands have shed
Thou hearst it for the murtherer plead
Whom on our hearts we bear;
The blood doth mercy, mercy sound,
And every drop a voice has found,
And swells into a prayer.

Verse 5
To that almighty prayer divine
Thou must thy gracious ear incline,
While Jesus gasps “Forgive!”
He cannot ask, and bleed in vain;
He died for this lost child of man,
And prays that he may live.

Verse 6
O for his prayer and passion sake,
This brand out of the burning take,
A present for thy Son,
Implunge in his Redeemer’s side,
And bear him thro’ the crimson tide
To thy eternal throne.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “[Prayers for the Conversion of a Murtherer, the Earl of Fer{rer}s]. Hymn II.” This hymn appears in the ca. 1786 manuscript “MS Miscellaneous Hymns.” 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 1977/556, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 2). 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 and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 3 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1992), pages 248-49.
Publishing: Public Domain