Verse 1
Gracious God, what shall I do?
Never will my heart prove true?
Never firm or constant prove,
Never keep thy pardning love?
All my vows are broke again,
All my purposes are vain,
Useless all my watchful fears,
Lost my unavailing tears!
Verse 2
How did I thy help implore,
Beg that I might sin no more,
Strive in agony of prayer,
Death itself to sin prefer!
Yet my enemy hath found,
Dealt the oft-inflicted wound,
All my hopes again destroy’d,
Kill’d the tender life of God.
Verse 3
Deeper plung’d in guilt and shame,
Whom, alas! Have I to blame?
Can I, who to sin gave place,
Charge thy insufficient grace!
No, thy slighted grace I clear,
Thou to help wert always near,
But I ceas’d to watch and pray,
Slacken’d, sunk, and fell away.
Verse 4
Shall I then the strife give o’er,
Never sue for mercy more,
To my fearful doom submit,
Sink content into the pit?
No, thy mercy answers, No!
Mercy will not let me go,
Still thy yearning bowels cry,
“Wherefore wilt thou sin, and die?”
Verse 5
Lord, to thee what shall I say?
Shall I promise still t’ obey?
Aggravate my guilt and pain,
Make, to break my vows again?
Lord, I know not what to do!
Only thou the way canst shew:
When, and as thou wilt restore,
Lift me up to fall no more.
Verse 6
’Till that welcome day I see,
Let me sorrow after thee,
Weeping at thy footstool lie,
Still for mercy, mercy cry,
Cry, or make my speechless moan,
Groan the Spirit’s deepest groan,
Gasp thy favour to retrieve,
Die to see thy face—and live!