Verse 1
Jesu, the sinner’s friend, to thee
Lost and undone for aid I flee,
Weary of earth, myself, and sin—
Open thine arms, and take me in.

Verse 2
Pity and heal my sin-sick soul,
’Tis thou alone canst make me whole,
Fal’n, till in me thine image shine,
And cursed I am till thou art mine.

Verse 3
Hear, Jesu, hear my helpless cry,
O save a wretch condemn’d to die!
The sentence in myself I feel,
And all my nature teems with hell.

Verse 4
When shall concupiscence and pride
No more my tortur’d heart divide!
When shall this agony be o’er,
And the old Adam rage no more!

Verse 5
Awake, the woman’s conqu’ring seed,
Awake, and bruise the serpent’s head,
Tread down thy foes, with power controul
The beast and devil in my soul.

Verse 6
The mansion for thyself prepare,
Dispose my heart by entring there!
’Tis this alone can make me clean,
’Tis this alone can cast out sin.

Verse 7
Long have I vainly hop’d and strove
To force my hardness into love,
To give thee all thy laws require;
And labour’d in the purging fire.

Verse 8
A thousand specious arts essay’d,
Call’d the deep Mystic to my aid:
His boasted skill the brute refin’d,
But left the subtler fiend behind.

Verse 9
Frail, dark, impure, I still remain,
Nor hope to break my nature’s chain:
The fond self-emptying scheme is past,
And lo! Constrain’d I yield at last.

Verse 10
At last I own it cannot be
That I should fit myself for thee:
Here then to thee, I all resign,
Thine is the work, and only thine.

Verse 11
No more to lift my eyes I dare
Abandon’d to a just despair;
I have my punishment in view.
I feel a thousand hells my due.

Verse 12
What shall I say thy grace to move?
Lord I am sin—but thou art love:
I give up every plea beside
“Lord I am damn’d—but thou hast died!”

Verse 13
While groaning at thy feet I fall
Spurn me away, refuse my call,
If love permit, contract thy brow,
And, if thou canst, destroy me now!