Then only, when by sore distress
Compell’d, I seek in God relief,
O’erwhelm’d with floods of wickedness,
And swallow’d up in gulphs of grief;
Out of the deep my mournful prayer
Directing to the throne divine,
And hoping against hope, I dare
In hell to call the Saviour mine.
Then only, when by sore distress
Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God.”—Jon. ii. 1. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). 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 94.
Publishing: Public Domain