God of love, who hear’st the prayer, Offered for a guilty land

Verse 1
God of love, who hear’st the prayer
Offer’d for a guilty land,
Thou dost yet thy wrath forbear,
Hold a-while thy lifted hand;
Thou with bowels of compassion
Giv’st us still a longer space:
Turn us then, the sinful nation,
Conquer by thy pard’ning grace.

Verse 2
Thee in dreadful indignation
Marching thro’ the land we saw,
Stopt by Israel’s supplication,
Lo! Thou dost the scourge withdraw:
O that all might hear and tremble
At the long-suspended rod,
All in Jesu’s name assemble,
All confess the Son of God!

Verse 3
Grant us in this awful crisis,
Hearts thy warning to receive,
Hearts to cast away our vices,
Hearts to sorrow and believe:
Humbly at thy footstool mourning,
Let us groan thy face to see,
Let us all at last returning,
Find our help and rest in thee.

Verse 4
Come, the contrite heart’s desire,
Friend of helpless sinners, come!
Hear and answer us by fire,
All our sins forgive—consume,
Humble us, and then deliver
Whom thou dost a-while reprove,
Save us then, and save for ever,
God of everlasting love!

Hymnal/Album: Introduced in Hymns for the Public Thanksgiving-Day, October 9, 1746, published by John and Charles Wesley (London, 1746). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 4 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1869), page 101.
Publishing: Public Domain