O my false, deceitful heart

Verse 1
O my false, deceitful heart,
Desperately false thou art,
Foul as hell, when fair in shew;
Who can all thy mazes know?
He the stars may reckon o’er,
Tell the sands that bound the shore,
Count the drops that make the sea,
Comprehend eternity.

Verse 2
Foolish heart, unjust and vain!
Pride was never made for man:
Glory dost thou still pursue?
Glory all to God is due.
What hast thou whereof to boast?
God alone is good and just;
Only his be all the praise,
What we are, we are by grace.

Verse 3
Wretched heart, with woes opprest!
Ever roving after rest;
Wilt thou still pretend to own
Bliss is found in God alone?
While thy foolish wishes go
After empty joys below,
False, imaginary ease,
Dreams of creature happiness.

Verse 4
Stony heart, which nought can move!
Thou can’st neither fear nor love:
Threats, and promises are vain,
Give thee neither joy, nor pain:
All alike it seems to thee
Perfect bliss, or misery,
Joys, or woes unspeakable,
Life or death, and heaven or hell.

Verse 5
Wav’ring, frail, inconstant heart,
O how blind, and weak thou art!
Weak as helpless infancy,
Blind thy helplesness to see,
To thine own corruptions blind,
More inconstant than the wind,
Wav’ring as a shaken reed,
Cold, and dark, and doubly dead.

Verse 6
Stubborn heart, ungrateful, hard,
With a red-hot iron sear’d!
Carnal heart, immerst in sin,
All a cage of birds unclean;
Downward all thy motions tend,
Lust, the beast, or pride, the fiend,
Shew thee, since thy total fall,
Earthly, sensual, devilish all.

Verse 7
Faithless heart! Be this thy grief,
Groan beneath thy[1] unbelief:
Unbelief, the damning sin,
Keeps thee all unclean, unclean,
Aggravates thy heavy load,
Will not let thee come to God,
Suffers not his grace to move,
Robs him of his truth and love.

Verse 8
Faithless heart, to Jesus bow,
Suffer him to save thee now!
No—thou wilt not now believe,
Wilt not take what God would give:
Thou refusest to be free,
All the hindrance is in thee,
Thro’ thy own rebellious will,
Bound thou art, and faithless still.

Verse 9
O my Lord, what must I do?
Only thou the way canst shew,
Thou canst save me in this hour,
I have neither will nor power:
God if over all thou art,
Greater than the sinful heart,
Let it now on me be shewn,
Take away the heart of stone.

Verse 10
Take away my darling sin,
Make me willing to be clean,
Make me willing to receive
What thy goodness waits to give;
Force me, Lord, with all to part,
Tear these idols from my heart,
All thy power on me be shewn,
Take away the heart of stone.

Verse 11
Jesu, mighty to renew,
Work in me to will, and do,
Turn my nature’s rapid tide,
Stem the torrent of my pride,
Stop the whirlwind of my will,
Speak, and bid the sun stand still;
Now thy love almighty shew,
Make ev’n me a creature new.

Verse 12
Arm of God, thy strength put on,
Bow the heavens, and come down,
All my[2] unbelief o’erthrow,
Lay th’ aspiring mountain low;
Conquer thy worst foe in me,
Get thyself the victory,
Save the vilest of the race,
Force me to be sav’d by grace.

[1] Wesley changed “thy” to “thine” in 1745.
[2] Wesley changed “my” to “mine” in 1745.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: "Jerem. xvii. 9." 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 86.
Publishing: Public Domain