Nature’s high-mindedness

Verse 1
Nature’s high-mindedness
How shall I lay aside?
I cannot, Lord, myself abase,
Myself divest of pride:
But if thou speak the word,
The word imparts the fear,
And poor, and vile, and self-abhor’d
I at thy feet appear.

Verse 2
Here let me ever lie
And tremble at thy grace,
Afraid to meet thy pitying eye,
To see thy smiling face:
Thus only may I prove
My growth in grace sincere,
And calmly wait, till perfect love
Compleat my humble fear.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Be not high-minded, but fear.”—[Rom.] xi. 20. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 13 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1872), page 16.
Publishing: Public Domain