Scripture Verse

The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:11

Introduction

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns for Use of Fa­mi­lies, 1767.

Music: Sup­pli­ca­tion George Mer­ritt, in The Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Hym­nal, ed­it­ed by George Booth (Lon­don: Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Pub­lish­ing House, 1889), num­ber 222 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Mer­ritt (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

Father of om­ni­pre­sent grace!
We seem agreed to seek Thy face;
But ev­ery soul as­sem­bled here
Doth nak­ed in Thy sight ap­pear:
Thou know’st who on­ly bows the knee,
And who in heart ap­proaches Thee.

Thy Spir­it hath the dif­fer­ence made
Betwixt the liv­ing and the dead;
Thou now dost into some in­spire
The pure, be­ne­vo­lent de­sire:
O that e’en now Thy pow­er­ful call
May quick­en and con­vert us all.

The sin­ners sud­den­ly con­vince,
O’erwhelmed be­neath their load of sins;
Today, while it is called to­day,
Awake, and stir them up to pray,
Their dire cap­ti­vi­ty to own,
And from the ir­on fur­nace groan.

Then, then, ac­know­ledge, and set free
The peo­ple bought, O Lord, by Thee!
The sheep for whom their Shep­herd bled,
For whom we in Thy Spir­it plead:
Let all in Thee re­demp­tion find,
And not a soul be left be­hind.