What is the grace I fain would prove

Verse 1
What is the grace I fain would prove
When I for pardon pray?
I want th’ Omnipotence of Love
To take my sins away;

Verse 2
I want a permanent release
From sin’s malignant power;
I want in thy victorious peace
To go, and sin no more.

Verse 3
Pardon itself would profit nought,
(If pardon Thou impart)
Unless the foul desire and thought
Be chased out of my heart;

Verse 4
Unless Thou wash my heart with blood,
And make my nature clean,
And saved indeed, and born of God
I can no longer sin!

Verse 5
Jesus, pronounce my spirit loosed
From its infirmity!
Now by thy love reveal’d, infus’d,
Effect the change in me.

Verse 6
Me, and my works canst Thou approve
All good, all gracious as Thou art?
What is Obedience without Love?
A sacrifice without an heart?

Verse 7
My fallen soul create anew,
And principled with grace
Henceforth I loath, abhor, eschew
My inbred wickedness.

Hymnal/Album: This loose-leaf manuscript is held by the Methodist Archive and Research Centre, The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number 1977/594/14). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School.
Publishing: Public Domain