Verse 1
Hear, Holy Spirit, hear,
My inward Comforter!
Loos’d by thee my stamm’ring tongue
First essays[1] to praise thee now,
This the new, the joyful song,
Hear it in thy temple thou!
Verse 2
Long o’er my formless soul
The dreary waves did roll;
Void I lay and sunk in night:
Thou, the overshadowing Dove,
Call’dst[2] the chaos into light,
Bad’st me be, and live, and love.
Verse 3
Thee I exult to feel,
Thou in my heart dost dwell:
There thou bear’st thy witness true,
Shed’st the love of God abroad;
I in Christ a creature new,
I, ev’n I am born of God!
Verse 4
Ere yet the time was come
To fix in me thy home,
With me oft thou didst reside:
Now, my God, thou in me art![3]
Here thou ever shalt[4] abide;
One we are, no more to part.
Verse 5
Fruit of the Saviour’s pray’r,
My promis’d Comforter!
Thee the world cannot receive,
Thee they neither know nor see,
Dead is all the life they live,
Dark their light, while void of thee.
Verse 6
Yet I partake thy grace
Thro’ Christ my righteousness;
Mine the gifts thou dost impart,
Mine the unction from above,
Pardon written on my heart,
Light, and life, and joy, and love.
Verse 7
Thy gifts, blest Paraclete,
I glory to repeat:
Sweetly sure of grace I am,
Pardon to my soul apply’d,
Int’rest in the spotless Lamb;
Dead for all, for me he dy’d.
Verse 8
Thou art thyself the seal;
I more than pardon feel,
Peace, unutterable peace,
Joy that ages ne’er can move,
Faith’s assurance, hope’s increase,
All the confidence of love!
Verse 9
Pledge of thy[5] promise giv’n,
My antepast of heav’n;
Earnest thou of joys divine,
Joys divine on me bestow’d,
Heav’n and Christ, and all is mine,
All the plenitude of God.
Verse 10 Thou art my inward guide,
I ask no help beside:
Arm of God, to[6] thee I call,
Weak as helpless infancy!
Weak I am—yet cannot fall
Stay’d by faith, and led by thee!
Verse 11 Hear, Holy Spirit, hear,
My inward Comforter!
Loos’d by thee my stamm’ring tongue
First essays[7] to praise thee now;
This the new, the joyful song,
Hear it in thy temple thou!
[1] Wesley changed “essays” to “assays” in 1761.
[2] Wesley changed “call’dst” to “call’d” in 1761.
[3] Wesley changed “thou in me art” to “in me thou art” in 1761.
[4] Wesley changed “shalt” to “shall” in 1761.
[5] Wesley changed “thy” to “the” in 1761.
[6] Wesley changed “to” to “on” in 1743.
[7] Wesley changed “essays” to “assays” in 1761.