Verse 1
How shall a sinner come to God?
A fountain of polluted blood
For years my plague hath been;
From Adam the infection came,
My nature is with his the same,
The same with his my sin.
Verse 2
In me the stubborn evil reigns,
The poison spreads throughout my veins;
A loathsome sore disease
Makes all my soul, and life unclean,
My every word, work, thought is sin,
And desp’rate wickedness.
Verse 3
Long have I liv’d in grief and pain,
And suffer’d many things in vain,
And all physicians tried;
Nor men nor means my soul can heal,
The plague is still incurable,
The fountain is undried.
Verse 4
No help can I from these receive,
Nor men nor means can e’er relieve,
Or give my spirit ease;
Still worse and worse my case I find;
Here then I cast them all behind,
From all my works I cease.
Verse 5
I use, but trust in means no more,
Give my self-saving labours o’er,
Th’ unequal task forbear;
My strength is spent, my strife is past,
Hardly I give up all at last,
And yield to self-despair.
Verse 6
I find brought in a better hope,
Succour there is for me laid up,
For every helpless soul;
Salvation is in Jesu’s name,
Could I but touch his garment’s hem,
Ev’n I should be made whole.
Verse 7
His body doth the cure dispense,
His garment is the ordinance
In which he deigns t’ appear;
The word, the prayer, the broken bread,
Virtue from him doth here proceed,
And I shall find him here.
Verse 8
I follow’d with the thoughtless throng,
And press’d, and crowded him too long,
And weigh’d him down with sin;
But him I did not hope to touch,
I never us’d the means as such,
Or look’d to be made clean.
Verse 9
The spirit of an healthful mind
I waited not in them to find,
The bread that comes from heaven;
Beyond my form I did not go,
The power of godliness to know,
And feel my sins forgiven.
Verse 10
But now I seek to touch my Lord,
To hear his whisper in the word,
To feel his Spirit blow;
To catch the love of which I read,
To taste him in the mystic bread,
And all his sweetness know.
Verse 11
’Tis here, in hope my God to find,
With humble awe I come behind,
And wait his grace to prove;
Before his face I dare not stand,
But faith puts forth a trembling hand,
To apprehend his love.
Verse 12
Surely his healing power is nigh;
I touch him now! By faith ev’n I,
My Lord, lay hold on thee:
Thy power is present now to heal,
I feel, thro’ all my soul I feel
That Jesus died for me.
Verse 13
Issues from thee a purer flood,
The poison’d fountain of my blood
Is in a moment dried;
The sovereign antidote takes place,
And I am freely sav’d by grace,
And I am justified.
Verse 14
I glory in redemption found:
Jesus, my Lord, and God, look round,
The conscious sinner see;
’Tis I have touch’d thy cloaths, and own
The miracle thy grace hath done,
On such a worm as me.
Verse 15
Behold me prostrate at thy feet,
And hear me thankfully repeat
The mercies of my God;
I felt from thee the med’cine flow,
I tell thee all the truth, and show
The virtue of thy blood.
Verse 16
With lowly reverential fear
I testify, that thou art near
To all who seek thy love;
Saviour of all I thee proclaim;
The world may know thy healing name,
And all its wonders prove.
Verse 17
Speak then once more, and tell my soul,
Sinner, thy faith hath made thee whole,
Thy plague of sin is o’er;
Be perfected in holiness,
Depart in everlasting peace,
Depart, and sin no more.