The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley

Jesu, take my sins away,
And make me know Thy name;
Thou art now as yesterday,
And evermore the same:
Thou my true Bethesda be;
I know within Thy arms is room,
All the world may unto Thee,
Their House of Mercy, come.

See the porches open wide!
Thy mercy all may prove,
All the world is justified
By universal love.
Halt and wither'd when they lie,
And sick, and impotent, and blind,
Sinners may in Thee espy
The Saviour of mankind.

See me lying at the pool,
And waiting for Thy grace;
O come down into my soul,
Disclose Thy angel-face!
If to me Thy bowels move,
If now Thou dost my sickness feel,
Let the Spirit of Thy love
The helpless sinner heal.

Sick of anger, pride, and lust,
And unbelief I am;
Yet in Thee for health I trust,
In Jesu's sovereign name.

154

Were I taken into Thee,
Could I but step into the pool,
I from every malady
Should be at once made whole.

Persons Thou dost not respect;
Whoe'er for mercy call
Thou in no wise wilt reject,
Thy mercy is for all;
Thou wouldst freely all restore,
(Would all the gracious season find,)
Fill with goodness, love, and power,
And with an healthful mind.

Mercy then there is for me,
(Away my doubts and fears!)
Plagued with an infirmity
For more than thirty years;
Jesu, cast a pitying eye;
Thou long hast known my desperate case,
Poor and helpless here I lie,
And wait the healing grace.

Long hath Thy good Spirit strove
With my distemper'd soul,
But I still refused Thy love
And would not be made whole:
Hardly now at last I yield,
I yield with all my sins to part;
Let my soul be fully heal'd,
And throughly cleansed my heart.

Sin is now my sore disease;
But though I would be free,
When the water troubled is
There is no help for me:

155

Others find a cure, not I;
In Thee they wash away their sin;
I, alas! have no man nigh,
To put my weakness in.

Pain and sickness, at Thy word,
And sin and sorrow flies;
Speak to me, Almighty Lord,
And bid my spirit rise;
Bid me take my burden up,
The bed on which Thyself didst lie,
When on Calvary's steep top
My Jesus deign'd to die.

Bid me bear the hallow'd cross
Which Thou hast borne before,
Walk in all Thy righteous laws,
And go and sin no more,
Lest the heaviest curse of all,
The vile apostate's curse, I prove:
To the hottest hell they fall
Who fall from pardoning love.

But Thou canst preserve from sin,
And stablish me with grace,
Keep my helpless soul within
Thy arms through all my days:
Jesu, I on Thee alone
For persevering grace depend;
Love me freely, love Thine own,
And love me to the end.

University of Virginia Library

THE POOL OF BETHESDA.

[John v. 2, &c.]