Old age we second childhood name

Verse 1
Old age we second childhood name,
Reason’s decline, and nature’s shame;
But infancy of grace
Our reason’s full perfection is,
Our meetness for th’ extatic bliss
The sight of Jesus face.

Verse 2
Jesus, believing in thy name,
By faith a child of God I am
The faith Thou didst impart;
And with a child’s docility
A tablet I present to Thee,
An unopposing heart.

Verse 3
Erase the characters of sin,
And write whate’er thou wilt therein,
Whate’er thou art for man:
Thy name, thine image I receive,
Which makes me fit with Thee to live,
With Thee my Lord to reign.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.’—[Mark 10,] v. 15.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Mark.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/574, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 31.
Publishing: Public Domain