Verse 1
Sinners, obey the gracious call,
Unto the Lord your God return,
The dire occasion of your fall
Your foolishness of folly mourn.
Verse 2
Sin only hath your ruin been;
In humble words your grief express,
Turn to the Lord, your shameful sin
The burden of your soul confess.
Verse 3
God of all power, and truth, and grace,
All our iniquity remove,
Spare, and accept a fallen race,
God of all power, and truth, and love.
Verse 4
Take all, take all our sins away,
Nor guilt, nor power, nor being have,
Forgive us now, thine arm display,
Thine own for Jesus’ sake receive.
Verse 5
So will we render thee the praise,
With joyful lips and hearts renew’d,
Present thee all our sinless days
A living sacrifice to God.
Verse 6
So will we trust in man no more,
No more to man for succour fly,
The works of our own hands adore,
Or seek ourselves to justify.
Verse 7
Not by an arm of flesh, but thine
We look from sin to be set free;
O love, O righteousness divine,
The helpless all find help in thee.
Verse 8
Surely in me (your God replies)
The fatherless shall mercy find,
Whoe’er on me for help relies,
Shall know the Saviour of mankind.
Verse 9
I (for my Son hath died to seal
Their peace, and all my wrath remove)
I will their sin-sick spirits heal,
And freely the backsliders love.
Verse 10
I will my sovereign art display,
To perfect health their soul restore,
And take their bent to sin away,
And lift them up to fall no more.
Verse 11
In blessings will I then come down,
And water them with gracious dew,
And all my former mercies crown,
And every pardon’d soul renew.
Verse 12
Israel shall as the lilly grow,
As chast, and[1] beautiful, and white,
Yet striking deep his roots below,
And tow’ring as the cedar’s height.
Verse 13
His branching arms he wide shall spread,
And flourish in eternal bloom,
Fair as the olive’s verdant shade,
Fragrant as Lebanon’s perfume.
Verse 14
Whoe’er beneath his shadow dwell,
Shall as the putrid corn revive,
A mortal quickning virtue feel,
And sink to rise, and die to live.
Verse 15
Their boughs with fruit ambrosial crown’d,
As Lebanon’s thick-clustring vine,
Shall spread their odours all around,
Grateful to human taste, and mine.
Verse 16
Ephraim, my pleasant child, shall say,
“With idols what have I to do?
I cannot sin: get hence away,
Vain world! I cannot stoop to you.
Verse 17
“God, only God hath all my heart,
My vile idolatries are o’er,
I cannot now from God depart,
For, born of God, I sin no more.”
Verse 18
Whoe’er to this high prize aspire,
And long my utmost grace to prove,
I heard, and mark’d their heart’s desire,
And I will perfect them in love.
Verse 19
Beneath my love’s almighty shade,
O Israel, sit, and rest secure,
On me thy quiet soul be stay’d,
’Till pure as I thy God am pure.
Verse 20
Surely I will my people save;
Who on my faithful word depend
Their fruit to holiness shall have,
And glorious-all to heaven ascend.
[1] Wesley changed “and” to “as” in 1745.