Tis not a sudden stroke of grace

’Tis not a sudden stroke of grace
Destroys at once the cursed race,
When first to Christ we come;
But by degrees insensible
The Lord shall all our sins expel,
And utterly consume.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “The Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayst not consume them at once.”—[Deut.] vii. 22. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 1 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 9 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 96.
Publishing: Public Domain