Wretched Sinner that I am

Verse 1
Wretched Sinner that I am,
What doth all my Strife avail?
Sin, my dire Reproach, and Shame,
Character indelible
Can my utmost Powers erase,
Can my Tears, or Blood deface?

Verse 2
Lo! the Beastly Mark is seen
Lo! the Inbred Sin is found,
Written with an Iron Pen,
With a pointed Diamond,
Deep engrav’d by hellish Art
On the Marble of my Heart

Verse 3
Forty long and mournful years
Have I strove to purge the Stain:
Still it mocks my ceaseless Tears,
Baffles all my Efforts vain:
Lord, at last to Thee I fly,
Help, or I forever die.

Verse 4
Faith I surely have in Thee,
Sins Thou canst forgive below,
Red as Scarlet though they be,
Thou canst wash them white as Snow,
Canst blot out the thickest Cloud,
Justify me by thy Blood.

Verse 5
Flows a Fountain from thy Side,
For Impurity and Sin,
Plunge me in the Purple Tide,
Purge me, and I shall be clean,
Wash’d from all my guilty Stains
Sav’d from Sin, and Sins Remains.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “Penitential.” This late-1740s hymn appears in the mid-1750s manuscript “MS Richmond.” 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 1977/551, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 1). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 3 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1992) page 149.
Publishing: Public Domain