Verse 1
Thou bidst me ask, and while thy word
Conveys the power to pray,
I ask the mercy of my Lord
To take my sins away:
The sins with which I cannot part
I pray Thee to remove,
And calm, and purify my heart
By thy forgiving love.

Verse 2
If my obduracy impede
The current of thy grace,
If unlamented crimes forbid
And will not let thee bless;
The contrite sense, the grief divine
Who only canst bestow,
Strike this hard rocky heart of mine,
And let the waters flow.

Verse 3
Repentance permanent and deep
To thy poor suppliant give,
Indulge me at thy feet to weep,
When Thou hast bid me live;
When Thou record’st my sins no more,
O may I still lament,
A sinner sav’d thy grace adore,
A pardon’d penitent.

Verse 4
Thou wil’st thy followers to request
Fulness of joy in Thee,
To covet gifts the chief, the best;
But grief seems best for me:
My sins I never can forget,
Ev’n when thy face appears,
Or covet but to kiss thy feet,
And wash them with my tears.

Verse 5
I ask not aught whereof to boast,
But let me feel applied
The blood that ransom’d sinners lost;
And by thy cross abide;
Myself the chief of sinners know,
Till all my griefs are past,
And of my gracious acts below
Repentance be the last.