The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley

Saviour, to Thee we humbly cry:
The brethren we have lost restore,
Recall them by Thy pitying eye,
Retrieve them from the tempter's power,
By Thy victorious blood cast down,
Nor suffer him to take their crown.

Beguiled, alas, by Satan's art
We see them now far off removed,
The burden of our bleeding heart,
The souls whom once in Thee we loved,
Whom still we love with grief, and pain,
And weep for their return in vain.

In vain, till Thou the power bestow,
The double power of quickening grace,
And make the happy sinners know
Their tempter with his angel face,
Who leads them captive at his will,
Captive—but happy sinners still:

O wouldst Thou break the fatal snare
Of carnal self-security,
And let them feel the wrath they bear,
And let them groan their want of Thee,
Robb'd of their false pernicious peace,
Stripp'd of their fancied righteousness.

The men of careless lives, who deem
Thy righteousness accounted theirs,
Awake out of the soothing dream,
Alarm their souls with humble fears,
Thou jealous God, stir up Thy power,
And let them sleep in sin no more.

245

Long as the guilt of sin shall last,
Them in its misery detain,
Hold their licentious spirits fast,
Bind them with their own nature's chain,
Nor ever let the wanderers rest,
Till lodged again in Jesu's breast.

University of Virginia Library

LXXII. THE SAME.

Hymn 12.

[Saviour, to Thee we humbly cry]