Verse 1
O Jesu, still, still shall I groan
Beneath the galling yoke of sin?
Wilt thou not claim me for thy[1] own,

And speak the word, and make me clean?
My load is more than I can bear:
Where is the friend of sinners? Where?

Verse 2
Is there no balm in thee to heal
The anguish of a sin-sick soul?
Dost thou not know the pangs I feel?

Dost thou not see the billows roll?
My soul is all a troubled sea,
I cannot find my rest in thee.

Verse 3
But wilt thou let thy foe devour
And take me as his lawful prey?
But must I sink beneath the power

Of sin, and fall a castaway?
Forbid it love! And save (if thou
Art love indeed) O! Save me now!

Verse 4
’Tis not the punishment I dread,
Harden’d I seem, and cannot fear
Thy wrath abiding on my head,

Or deprecate thy judgments near;
But rescue me from Satan’s power,
Save me from sin, I ask no more.

Verse 5
I ask not sensible delight,
The joy and comfort of thy grace,
Still let me want thy blissful sight,

Let me go mourning all my days;
With trembling awe thy ways adore;
But save me, that I sin no more.

Verse 6
Rather than suffer me to sin,
Now, Lord, my spotted soul require:
I know that I am all unclean,

And thou a sin-consuming fire;
I cannot now in heaven appear,
Nothing unclean shall enter there.

Verse 7
Yet now I chuse to breathe my last,
Rather than turn to sin again,
On thee my soul unchang’d I cast,

And foul with every sinful stain,
I plunge me in a sea unknown,
Without thy[2] utmost grace—undone!

Verse 8
Thou canst cut short the work, and heal
The sinner in a moment’s space;
Be it according to thy will,

I leave it to thy secret grace,
I venture all on this last hour,
And die, that I may sin no more.

[1] Wesley changed “thy” to “thine” in 1745.
[2] Wesley changed “thy” to “thine” in 1745, but returned to “thy” in following editions.