The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley

Almighty God of truth and love,
In me Thy power exert,
The mountain from my soul remove,
The hardness from my heart:
My most obdurate heart subdue,
In honour of Thy Son,
And now the gracious wonder show,
And take away the stone.

I want a principle within,
Of jealous, godly fear,
A sensibility of sin,
A pain to feel it near:
I want the first approach to feel
Of pride, or fond desire,
To catch the wanderings of my will,
And quench the kindling fire.

374

From Thee that I no more may part,
No more Thy goodness grieve,
The filial awe, the fleshly heart,
The tender conscience give,
Quick as the apple of an eye,
O God, my conscience make:
Awake my soul, when sin is nigh,
And keep it still awake.

If to the right, or left I stray,
That moment, Lord, reprove,
And let me weep my life away
For having grieved Thy love:
Give me to feel an idle thought
As actual wickedness,
And mourn for the minutest fault
In exquisite distress.

O may the least omission pain
My well instructed soul,
And drive me to the blood again,
Which makes the wounded whole:
More of this tender spirit, more
Of this affliction send,
And spread the moral sense all o'er,
Till pain with life shall end.

University of Virginia Library

CLXVII. FOR A TENDER CONSCIENCE.