O Thou of whom I oft have heard

Verse 1
O thou of whom I oft have heard,
Heard with the hearing of the ear,
But never truly lov’d, or fear’d,
But never found thee present here,
Come to my poor, my faithless heart,
And kindly tell me who thou art.

Verse 2
A spirit dark, and damn’d I am,
Sorrow and sin and I are one,
Weigh’d down with grief, and guilt and shame,
Out of the deep I cry and groan,
Nor know I where relief to find;
Shew me thou Saviour of mankind.

Verse 3
No smallest motion can I make,
Toward heaven, and happiness, and thee;
But save me for thy mercy sake,
Thy mercy most divinely free
Be on this harden’d rebel shew’d,
In honour of the dying God.

Verse 4
The cause is all in thee alone,
It lies within thy tender breast,
To hell in anger send me down,
Or give my lab’ring spirit rest,
Redeem me from th’ infernal grave,
And shew forth all thy power to save.

Verse 5
Look not on me, a beast, a fiend,
All-wrath, all-passion, and all-pride,
But see thyself, the sinner’s friend,
The Son of man, the crucified,
The God that left his throne above,
The bleeding Prince of Peace, and love.

Verse 6
Why did thy love submit to die,
If not to save apostate man,
Ah! Let thy bowels answer, Why
Made capable of mortal pain,
Did God his precious life resign,
If not from death to ransom mine!

Verse 7
Thy only dying love I plead,
Stronger than death thy love to me:
If thou couldst suffer in my stead,
Thou canst from sin and misery
My poor expiring soul lift up,
And bid the chief of sinners hope.

Verse 8
Ev’n now thou bidst my fears depart,
I hope to know my sins forgiven,
I hope to find thee in my heart,
And taste that antepast of heaven,
I hope to feel thy blood applied,
Since thou for me, for me hast died.

Hymnal/Album: Introduced in Hymns and Sacred Poems Vol. 1, published by Charles Wesley (Bristol: Felix Farley, 1749). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 4 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1869), page 332.
Publishing: Public Domain