Verse 1
Sin cannot duty supersede,
Nor am I from reproving freed:
A sinner, still I must reprove
Sinners in lowliness of love,
But ask, when ready to condemn
The mote, have I cast out the beam?

Verse 2
Assist me, Lord, to lay aside
The zeal of novices untried,
The unreform’d reformer’s haste
Too fierce, too violent to last,
And let me with myself begin
By now renouncing my own sin.

Verse 3
My bosom-sin I would not hide
With fig-leaves of delusive pride,
With envious, quick, discerning eye
My neighbour’s faults I would not spy;
My gentleness on them be shown,
My harshness on myself alone.

Verse 4
O may I strive, and not in vain,
Personal holiness t’ attain,
First judge myself with shame and grief
The least of saints, the sinner’s chief,
And then another’s faults reprove
With candor, equity, and love.