Thy word in the bare literal sense

Verse 1
Thy word in the bare literal sense,
Tho’ heard ten thousand times, and read,
Can never of itself dispense
The saving power which wakes the dead:
The meaning spiritual and true
The learn’d expositor may give,
But cannot give the virtue too,
Or bid his own dead spirit live.

Verse 2
But breathing in the sacred leaves
If on the soul thy Spirit move,
The re-begotten soul receives
The quickning power of faith and love;
Transmitted thro’ the gospel-word
Whene’er the Holy Ghost is given,
The sinner hears, and feels restor’d
The life of holiness and heaven.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “It is the spirit that quickneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.”—[John] vi. 63. 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. 11 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1871), page 392.
Publishing: Public Domain