The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley

How empty our external boast,
Who the true God adore
In Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Nor know His gracious power:
Strangers to vital piety,
If sunk in sin we lie,
The truth which hath not made us free,
Our careless lives deny.

Our faith is but a shadow vain,
Unless it works by love,
And saved from sin, and born again
We seek the things above:
Unless we have the sacred Trine
Into our hearts received,
And I can call each person mine,
I have not yet believed.

God inaccessible, unknown,
If through Thy precious grace
Convinced of unbelief I groan
To see Thy smiling face:
The veil of unbelief remove,
The sins I now confess,
And give my new-born soul to prove
The power of godliness.

332

Thee that I may my Father know,
A grain of faith impart,
The Spirit of Thy Son bestow
To witness in my heart;
That Thou in Christ art reconciled,
My conscience certify,
And then Thy dear adopted child,
I Abba Father cry.

Son of the living God, appear,
And tell me Thou art He,
Jehovah manifested here
In frail humanity:
Author of faith, Thou only know'st
The Father to reveal;
And breathed by Thee, the Holy Ghost
Doth in Thy people dwell.

Thou Lamb of God, who bear'st away
The universal sin,
Thy sin-forgiving power display,
And touch a leper clean:
The gracious mystery make known,
Apply the' atoning blood,
And vanquish'd by Thy cross, I own
Thou art my Lord, my God.

Spirit of faith, my soul convince
Of Jesu's righteousness,
Which hides, and swallows up my sins,
And bids my sorrows cease:
The God supreme, in heaven adored,
Who did my sorrows bear,
Enable me to call Him Lord,
And all His power declare.

333

What though the sinners' chief I am,
If Thou pronounce me free,
I stand absolved in Jesus' name,
And justified by Thee:
The Pledge, the Witness, and the Seal,
If Thou my Portion art,
I find, and every moment feel
The Triad in my heart.

University of Virginia Library

XXXIII.

[How empty our external boast]