To bless me, Lord, this day begin

Verse 1
To bless me, Lord, this day begin,
To turn my heart against its sin
By penitential grace;
My heart with godly grief inspire,
With sacred fear, and strong desire
To see thy smiling face.

Verse 2
The evangelic blessing give
When humbled at thy feet I grieve,
Beneath my guilty load,
The knowledge of Thyself reveal’d
My pardon and salvation seal’d
By thy atoning blood.

Verse 3
When Thee in part I truly know,
Bid me in peace and safety go
With every blessing blest,
With love, and holiness compleat
My Saviour in the clouds to meet
My soul’s Eternal Rest.

Verse 4
When rais’d out of the dust I stand,
Plac’d with the sheep at thy right hand
The final blessing give,
The palm, the glory, and the crown,
And bid me at thy side sit down,
In all thy joy to live.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘From this day will I bless you.’—[Hag.] 2:19.” This hymn appears in the 1783 manuscript “MS Scriptural Hymns.” 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 1977/576, 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 110.
Publishing: Public Domain