Wretched soul, the strife forbear

Verse 1
Wretched soul, the strife forbear,
The long, successless pain,
Sink o’rewhelm’d with just despair
To love thy God again;
Seek no more the things above,
To none but loving spirits given:
If thou canst not hope for love,
Thou canst not hope for heaven.

Verse 2
Never shall I love my God,
Till God in Christ I know,
Him who bought me with his blood,
Who died to save his foe:
Never shall I cease from sin,
Till in his loving Spirit reveal’d
Jesus witnesses within,
And speaks my pardon seal’d.

Verse 3
Jesus (if I may once more
Without presumption pray)
Comfort to my soul restore,
And take my sin away,
All the guilt, and all the power
And all the nature, Lord, remove;
Save me, save me in this hour
By bringing in thy love.

Verse 4
Come thyself into my heart,
Essence of love divine,
Thy own nature to impart
And make it truly mine:
Then I know salvation sure
I find the glorious Earnest given
One with my Beloved, mature
For all the joys of heaven.

Hymnal/Album: This hymn was included in a manuscript titled “MS Hymns for Love.” This manuscript is held by the Methodist Archive and Research Centre of the John Rylands Library at The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/578, 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. 8 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 373.
Publishing: Public Domain