Verse 1
How sad our state by nature is,
While enemies to God,
We wander from the way of peace,
And throng the downward road!

Verse 2
As a wild ass’s colt is man,
Untaught and unconfin’d,
’Till discipline his will restrain,
And faith inform his mind.

Verse 3
But O, with what reluctant strife
Do men themselves forego!
How late begin the work of life,
How late their Saviour know!

Verse 4
Call’d in the morning of their day,
How few like us are blest!
Us, if we now the call obey,
And fly to Jesu’s breast.

Verse 5
This, Lord, is our sincere desire
To find our rest in thee,
To do whate’er thy laws require
In true simplicity;

Verse 6
The inward change, that second birth,
By faith divine to prove,
And practise all thy will on earth,
As angels do above.