Jesu, Thou know’st my simpleness

Verse 1
Jesu, thou knowst my simpleness,
My faults are not conceal’d from thee,
A sinner in my last distress,

To thy dear wounds I fain would flee,
And never never thence depart,
Close shelter’d in thy loving heart.

Verse 2
How shall I find the living way,
Lost, and confus’d, and dark, and blind;
Ah! Lord, my soul is gone astray,

Ah! Shepherd, seek my soul, and find,
And in thy[1] arms of mercy take,
And bring the weary wanderer back.

Verse 3
Weary and sick of sin I am,
I hate it, Lord, and yet I love:
When wilt thou rid me of my shame,

When wilt thou all my load remove,
Destroy the fiend of inbred sin,
And speak the word of power, “Be clean!”

Verse 4
My Jesus, why dost thou delay
An helpless dying soul to heal?
What shall I to my Jesus say?

Dost thou not all my sufferings feel?
Ah! Tell me, if unmov’d thou art?
How dost thou find it in thy heart?

Verse 5
What means this struggling in my breast,
If thine is steel’d against my prayer?
If thou art deaf to my request,

Why do I groan my sin to bear?
Surely it is thy Spirit’s groan,
I do not grieve, or weep alone.

Verse 6
I feel that thou would’st have me live,
And waitest now thy grace to shew,
When I am willing to receive

The grace, I all thy life shall know,
And thou art striving now with me,
To get thyself the victory.

Verse 7
O Lord, if I at last discern,
That I am sin, and thou art love,
If now o’er me thy bowels yearn,

Give me a token from above,
And conquer my rebellious will,
And bid my murmering heart, “Be still.”

Verse 8
Sin only let me not commit,
(Sin never can advance thy praise)
And lo! I lay me at thy feet,

And wait unwearied all my days,
Till my appointed time shall come,
And thou shalt call thine exile home.

Verse 9
Ah! Tell me, that I shall not sin,
Assur’d of this, I ask no more,
The kingdom when thou wilt, bring in,

Thine image as thou wilt restore,
But do not suffer sin to reign,
Ah! Do not let me sin again.[2]

Verse 10
Or if I ask I know not what,
The knowledge of a future grace,
If this can only then be wrought

When pure in heart I see thy face,
O pierce, and fill me now with fear
Of sin, and hell forever near.

Verse 11
O put thy fear within my heart,
That I may tremble at thy word,
Nor ever from thy paths depart,

Or dare to sin against the Lord,
Till I the promis’d seed receive,
Let Ishmael before thee live.

Verse 12
I ask according to thy will,
O keep me till the grace is given,
Till I thy holy law fulfil

On earth, as angels do in heaven,
Thy[3] uttermost salvation prove,
Made perfect in almighty love.

[1] Wesley changed “thy” to “thine” in 1745, but returned to “thy” in following editions.
[2] Wesley changed this line to “Tell me I ne’er shall sin again” in 1745, but returned to the original in following editions.
[3] Wesley changed “thy” to “thine” in 1745, but returned to “thy” in following editions.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: "Groaning For Redemption, Part II." Introduced in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1742), published by John and Charles Wesley (London: William Strahan, 1742). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 2 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1869), page 128.
Publishing: Public Domain