Sinners should lament and wail,
Sunk so near th’ abyss of hell,
Nothing from that gaping grave
But the death of God could save!
Sinners should with comfort rise,
Lift to heaven their thankful eyes,
Glad, that God thro’ love extreme,
Died himself to ransom them!
Sinners should lament and wail
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again: and they were exceeding sorry.’—[Matt. 17,] v. 22, 23.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” 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 1977/577, 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. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 312.
Publishing: Public Domain