Sever’d from Christ, the Root

Verse 1
Sin, unimpower’d by grace,
I never can confess;
Till Thou repentance give,
Sin I can never leave;
Till Thou the contrite wish inspire,
I never can Thyself desire.

Verse 2
Thee, Lord, and Thee alone
Author of faith I own,
Thee, Saviour I confess
Giver of holiness,
Who only dost on man confer
Our souls’ eternal Comforter.

Verse 3
While sever’d from the Root
I cannot bring forth fruit;
But to my Saviour join’d,
The same in heart and mind,
I wait in impotence to prove
The whole omnipotence of love.

Hymnal/Album: Verse 3 was introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). It was titled "Sever'd from Christ, the Root," with the Scripture notation “Without me ye can do nothing.” [John] xv. 5. Wesley later altered this hymn and added the first two verses in his 1763-64 manuscript “MS John.” 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 1977/573, 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. 12 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 20.
Publishing: Public Domain